Report on our Visit to the Yunus Emre Mosque in Biedenkopf

On January 20th our class went with other grade 7ths to the Yunus Emre Mosque  This mosque is part of DITIB.

Right as we got there, we had to take off our shoes outside and put them in shelves, so that the carpet in the mosque would not get dirty. We also were told that women and men usually seperate while praying, so everyone can focus on the prayer ond not on some person oft he other gender.

They also have washing rooms form men and women where one has to wash hands, feet and face, because one should be clean while being with God.

When we went into the building we saw the carpet which covered the whole room which people pray on.

Then we got introduced to DITIB, an assotiation which is sponsonred by the Turkish gouvernment and has many mosques in Germany. It has 300000 members all over Germany and 250-300 in Biedenkopf.

Then we were shown an 8 minute movie about mosques.  We learned about how the Imam called to prayer, which was loud but not too loud. We were also told about the interiour features of a mosque., like the Mihrab, which is a prayer niche that always points to Mecca, the direction in which all Muslims have to pray to. There was also a Minbar which is a kind of staircase, where the Imam preaches from. He doesn`t use the highest step, because this one is reserved for Mohamed.

The word for God „Allah“ and the name of the prophet are written in calligraphic letters on the wall.

In the video we also saw some exterior, e.g. the minaret, a little tower which the believers are called to prayer from 5 times a day. Some mosques also have domes. The last item we saw in the video were the 5 pillars of Islam:

  1. the declaraion of faith
  2. the 5 daily prayers
  3. giving alms, at the amount of 2.5% of your income
  4. fasting during Ramadan from dawn to dusk. The date of this month varies, because it is a month of the moon calendar
  5. The pilgrimage to Mecca, which one has to undertake, when one can afford it. Poor, old and sick people can send someone else on their behalf.

After this video the Imam recited the call to prayer and some suras of the Qur‘an in a melodic way. We also were told, that he held his hand to the cheek out of tradition. Then we had the chance to ask some questions. One was if the Imam had to have a special training for the reciting oft he suras. He answered that this was correct and that every prayer and sura had their own „melody“ when recitied.

At the end we got some drinks and snacks and went back to school.

We enjoyed the visit very much.

Matty Hofmann