The Benefits Of The Mosque

The more I go to taraweeh the more I benefit from it. For someone like me who has few family members in the UAE and spends most of Ramadan surrounded by non-Muslim friends, taraweeh are the only time of the day when I get a sense of Ramadan.

As I attend the nightly prayers I see fellow Muslims, fellow fasters and feel that there is a community out there (one which I have yet to tap in to).

People who are praying next to me will come with cups of water and distribute them to those around. They go out of their way to help the elderly find chairs on which to sit and pray and just generally look out for each other.

There is no real community sense as such, in terms of people getting to know one another through the mosque, but at least while there they look out for one another.

In addition to this, paying attention in prayer means I learn the correct pronunciation of verses in the Quran. The Imam, man who leads the prayer, is a well educated religious man who, more often than not, has learnt the Quran in full and how to recite it properly.

Through prayers we can appreciate the true meaning of the verses as the correct pronunciation brings out their essence. It also helps refresh your memory of the verses which you have forgotten over the years and encourages you to relearn them.

As prayers are an hour long, there is a short break in the middle where the Imam gives a small sermon and encourages the congregation to better themselves during Ramadan and after it has finished.

There is so much to learn and benefit from while going to the mosque, it’s truly something that shouldn’t be underestimated.