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Twelve ways to get active in your Local Masjid
(Mosque)
There are countless ways to be and
be involved in your Masjid. An active Masjid where God-fearing
believers pray, teach and learn is the absolute best place to
be.
1. Be a Visitor: First of all, visit your Masjid for salah
(prayer) regularly at least once or twice a day. While all
prayers are more virtuous in the Masjid than at home, the Fajr
and Isha salah (morning and night prayer) are particularly
important, according to the Sunnah (Tradition of Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him). Experience also shows that most
people are free from other
engagements at those times, and so these gatherings, especially
the Isha salah, is the largest. If you are not regular at your
Masjid, it may be advisable to start with daily Isha salah at
the Masjid, then add Fajr, and then the next convenient salah,
and so on.
2. Be a Minaret: An extremely charming and beneficial role
you can play at the Masjid is to be a minaret: a minaret of the
light of smiles, politeness, cordiality and concern for other
visitors. This is the most important yet unassuming role one can
play. Make your Masjid a beloved place for the rest of your
Muslim brothers you meet there. Believe me, people sometimes
would be encouraged to come to the Masjid if they know such
minarets are there who will make their day, and bring happiness
and friendship to their lives.
3. Be a student: The next role after becoming a regular
visitor is to be a student. There must be more knowledgeable
people than you in the Masjid in one or more areas of Islamic
knowledge. If you are lucky, there are one or more study circles
for this knowledge already. If not, start them. Then do not be
shy to be a student of whoever knows something valuable.
4. Be a Teacher: Being a teacher is even more beneficial
role, because now you both give and take from other people. Of
course, this requires that you have sufficiently mastered the
subject or area you teach or speak about.
5. Be a Follower: The congregational salah are the best
spiritual and mental exercise to teach us how to follow with
discipline. Even if the Imam (leader) makes a mistake, there are
rules to correct him. Similarly, when it comes to organizing all
other educational, social and even political efforts at the
Masjid, join the efforts you see best for yourself, and be a
good, thinking, positive and constructive follower of the
leadership.
6. Be a Leader: If and when you learn to be a good follower
and listener, you can also begin to learn how to be a good
leader. All those Masjid committees, outreach groups, open
houses, initiatives for major projects need good leaders. If you
are fully confident that you can do a good job as a leader, do
not deprive your community of your skills. But be extremely
careful of selfishness, self-aggrandizement, or arrogance.
Leadership is not everyone's job, and this does not have to do
with piety alone. The Prophet [Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam
(SAWS) / peace be upon him] had advised Abu Tharr, a very
righteous companion, to never accept a position of leadership.
7. Be a Brother: When praying in congregation, the people
praying with you are your brothers. You are with them in the
company of Allah. They are beseeching Allah for the same things
as you. In fact, you collectively say 'Ameen' upon completing
Fatihah (the first chapter of Qur'an). If Allah accepts any ONE
of them, ALL of the people praying with him are blessed and
forgiven. A scholar used to say that the congregational salah is
dear to him for this very reason. Praying in the company of the
righteous is, therefore, an immense blessing. Would you not love
those brothers whose salah coincide yours, and whose acceptance
with Allah may be your acceptance?
8. Be a Helper: Masjid is the best place to remember and
practice the teaching of the Qur'an:
"Help you one another in benevolence and piety, and do not
help one another in sin and hostility." (5:2)
Where else could you find more acts of righteousness and
piety?
9. Be a Cleaner: Cleaning the Masjid is a great honor in the
sight of Allah. The Prophet (SAWS) insisted to pray upon the
grave of a Companion who used to clean the Masjid when he heard
that the former had died.
10. Be a Donor: Donate regularly to your Masjid, even if it
is little and even if you donate in many other causes. This
increases your love for Allah and for the house of Allah, and
decreases love of this world. There is hardly any cause you will
see the result of your donation more immediately than in your
Masjid.
11. Be a Listener: On Friday, we listen to Khutbas (orations)
and yet our life seems unaffected. This is so because listening
and taking lessons is a skill to be learned and earned, as much
as, if not more than, speaking and delivering lectures.
Sometimes, a bad listener may get nothing out of a great
speaker, and sometimes a good listener may benefit a lot from an
unskillful speaker. So, be a good listener, for that is much
more important and beneficial than being a good speaker. Your
being a good speaker benefits others, while your being a good
listener benefits you.
12. Be a Speaker: Last but not least, if you feel you have
learned enough to share with others, and have good speaking
skills, don't hesitate to benefit others from your skills. Your
Masjid always needs people who are skillful and confident in
public speaking. While the Friday sermons require more training
and knowledge, beginning with introductory speeches about Islam
to non-Muslims, and talks at the study circles may be the right
places for you to start.
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