Sunday School at the Mosque
“Do you know what the Five Pillars are?” asked Masood.
“Not exactly,” answered a girl.
So, for the third time this winter, Masood lists the pillars, the very essence of Islam, to a group that can seem less than attentive.
Masood repeats the five tenets – Sahadah or belief in the oneness of God, Salah or prayer, Sawm or fasting during Ramadan, Zakah or financial obligation of giving 2.5 percent of one’s savings to the needy, and Hajj or pilgrimage that a Muslim has to undertake to Mecca if his resources allow.
The girls continue to giggle. A few take notes. The teacher continues. “We should not worship anybody but Allah. We should believe in Prophet. Peace be upon him,” said Masood, who volunteers to teach the level 3 girls at the Sunday school held at Islamic Society of Central New York, 925 Comstock Ave. There are four levels at the school. Students start with memorizing Quranic verses and graduate to learning the Prophet’s teachings.
Fifteen teachers teach children various courses ranging from memorization of Quranic verses to Islamic studies where the students are taught about Prophet Mohamed’s life and teachings. The students pay $200 a year to attend the school and this covers the cost of books.
The girls are not convinced. Masood tells them Allah loves children and grants their wishes if they pray.
“Last year I wanted something real bad and I prayed. Allah did not give it to me,” said a student.
Masood explains to the students that her wish must not have been a good one.
“Allah cares for us. He will not give us something that is not good for us in the long-term,” she said.
Another student said her brother had been hit by a car and could not speak because the accident had rendered him mute. He was not at fault. Why did Allah do this to him?, she asked.
“Sometimes, He examines our faith,” Masood said, implying that one should not lode faith under any circumstance.
There are around 120 students at the school, 60 of which are girls. The school starts at 9:45 a.m. and ends at 12:30 with Duhr, the afternoon prayer, where the young girls and the boys pray separately under the supervision of their teachers. The school started around 15 years ago in order to teach Muslim children the concepts of Islam in order to lead a life befitting a Muslim.
In this country, parents are busy. There is no time. So it is left to the mosques to teach the children about Islam, said Mir Hussaini, secretary of the Islamic Society.
“As a Muslim, they need to pray when they are seven or eight. If they need to pray, then they must know how to pray. The prayers are in Arabic and I read out the suras and they recite after me,” said Mohammed Azad, who teaches the level 2 students.
The English translation of the Arabic verses is available to the students, who are taught the Arabic letters and grammar over a period of time so that they can read the Quran, the holy book of the Muslims. The Muslims pray in Arabic, the language of the Mohamed. The translations, which are available in various languages, are not considered sacred. Therefore, it is necessary for kids to learn a few suras in Arabic so that they can offer namaz, the prayer, said Taqiuddin Ahmed, the Imam and director of the Islamic Society.
“Not a single word in the Quran has changed over the centuries. The words are the words of Allah as spoken to Prophet. The memorization of the Quran is a way of preserving those words,” he said.
During the break at 11:15 a.m., the children run around, chase each other and eat their lunch, which they bring from home. The Masjid authorities distribute wafers, soft drinks and coffee. While the younger ones play, the slightly older ones like Anika Azad, 13, sit quietly on the stone steps and wait for the class to resume. Another bunch of girls chat way excitedly. A few older boys seem impatient. The Super Bowl XL is today and they would rather be at home watching TV than be here.
Ali Etman, 14, is one of them. A level 4 student, he has been coming here since he was seven. He said he knew most of the course already and enjoys if there is something new. The older girls and boys are not allowed to mix. However, the students in level 1 and 2 sit in the same class. This was introduced last week in order to accommodate all the students. Previously, the Sunday classes were held at T. Aaron Levy Middle School. But the Levy school was demanded too much money, more than what the mosque could afford. So, the mosque authorities decided to hold the classes in the mosque, said Ramla Shaikh, the co-principal of the school.
The mosque used to pay the Levy Middle School $200 a day for the use of its classrooms on Sundays. When the new school superintendent came, the school raised the fee to $1,600, she said.
“The books are expensive and all the money from the tuition is spent toward books,” said Shaikh, who introduced the idea of mixing the girls and the boys in the lower levels in order to make the best use of available space.
“I convinced them. The boys behave well when they are with girls and it is easier to control them. The religion allows it at this level. When they reach puberty at 12 or 13, we are not allowed to mix them,” she said.
Shaikh’s idea was not welcome by all. Runa Hasan, 18, who teaches the level 1 students at the school, said this was against the religion. The religion warns against attraction to women other than one’s spouse.
“The boys and the girls must know that they need to be separated,” she said.
But inside the mosque the boys hang out together and the girls keep to themselves. The girls, including the younger ones, wear the head scarf. However, most of them wear the hijab in the Sunday school only.
“It looks cool. I wore it to my regular school one day and everybody stared at me. I felt weird,” said Samila Alemic, a level 3 student.
Muslim women are to cover their heads while praying. The tradition of covering oneself comes from the old Arab tradition where women from wealthy families covered themselves with chador, a sheet. It was a mark of their status in the society and ensured respect and safety. Since Islam does not believe in class distinctions, all women were required to cover themselves in order to bridge class differences, explained Masood.
Most of the older girls are in jeans. The teachers are dressed in salwar-kameez and head scarves. A few wear the burqa or the long-flowing gowns.
“Normally, I wear pants and skirts. But on Sundays I wear our traditional dress,” said Masood, who is from Pakistan. She is a physics professor at Le Moyne College.
She does not think that Muslim girls should wear hijab outside. But they must not wear very tight clothes as they are provocative, she said.
At 12:30, it is time for the afternoon prayer and the girls gather together in the Musalla, an open space, on the first floor to pray. The boys assemble in the prayer room downstairs with their teachers. The room is plain with no idols or decorations of any sort. Islam prohibits idol-worship and worships a formless God.
A young boy leads the prayer with an older man. All of them face toward Mecca, the holy city that houses the Kaaba. Muslims believe that Kaaba, a stone cube, was erected by Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail long ago in order to preach the idea of monotheism.
The girls stand in three straight lines. At the sound of Allah Hu Akbar or God is greatest, they bend down, prostrate themselves and stand in turns in submission to Allah’s supreme authority.
The prayer lasts for 15 minutes. The girls are in a hurry to get out.
“We have been here since 10,” said Samila Alemic.
Masood gets her bag and calls her daughter on the cell phone. Her daughter and son attend the school.
“It is difficult to get the girls interested in religious studies. In today’s age, it is impossible to preserve a religion in its pure form. We can only try,” she said.
