Madinah Masjid committee in Limbe has acted swiftly towards eradicating noise by removing chairs which Muslims use to sit when taking off and putting on their shoes.
This follows a report by this website which strongly condemned the ever increasing noise at the masjid especially among Muslim brothers of Asian origin.
The chairs were moved into the masjid with a sign “Don’t sit here after salah. Observe silence.”
Muslims use the chairs when taking off and or putting on their shoes but others have been using the place as a platform for chatting and smoking, the thing which has been irritating other people.
The chatting has even been happening inside the masjid when Imaam is on Minbar delivering Khutbah.
Mufti Bilal who is one of the committee members was also forced to make a strong announcement which lasted for about 10 minutes condemning the malpractice.
“This is a place of Allah not for gossiping. If you want to discuss other things you better do it outside this premises. If you don’t want that, it’s good you stay home than coming here disturbing your friends who want to get closer to Allah.
“During my childhood, everytime we make noise in the masjid the elderly could show us an ugly face and we could know that they want us to be silent. However, here, surprisingly you will find that most of the people who make noise are grown up, seemingly they don’t realise the importance of swalaat. This is really embarrassing and it is something that should not be entertained,” said Bilal.
I personally do not second the idea of removing chairs simply because these chairs assisted the elderly at times of taking off shoes. People would keep on sharing jokes, chuckling and laughing even when they are sat in muswallah.
The truth is Indian muslims at Madinah, Limbe market and Kanjedza Masaajid are fond of making noise regardless of seeing the Khatweeb on the Minmbar. This habit urkes and disturbs Malawian muslims especially blacks knowing they can’t voice out due to the fear of losing their jobs in their respective work places.
It was a very good observation by our muslim brother showing concern on the noise at the madina Masjid in limbe.The first aticle was quite impressive as it opened eyes of fellow muslim brothers and da so called ‘committee members’as u mentioned in the second ariticle.However it was quite shocking to see a few pictures in the article showing pictures of the masjid.Whereas it was the same person that has observed da ‘silence’ and ‘please do not sit and talk after namaaz’signs in the masjid and ommitted the’no photography,filming’signs right at the entrance of the masjid.According to many you should have been the last person with so much knowledge and concern about muslims should have taken such a drastic step to take ‘photos’of the masjid which has been refused to do so,and neglected by our brother.It is creating confusion to some muslims where ‘one’ sign was observed and the other was not
Alhamdullillah that this is proving to be a platform we can discuss amicably and with the love for each other and the Deen of ALLAH. My only advice is to all brothers and sisters who are parents. No matter how old your child is, make sure you observe him/her in the masjid. There are really sad cites in all masjids mentioned where relatively old boys sit and chat waiting for the swalat to commence and that is when they rush to be on the line. It is sad that they were not informed that khutbah is part of the Jumuah swalat, in a sense like two rakaats. Thus the khutbah and the swalats' two rakaats making it four. So whether black, Indian or any other shade of colour parent, must make sure the children are controlled. Second advice. Parents should take time to discuss such issues with their family members. This tendency is becoming so annoying, degrading the deen and confusing everyone who comes to the masjid to really pray and not be there because you are forced to be there. During the months of Ramadaan its even more disturbing. You have these boys sit in the line and wait until the first rukuuh, thus when they would stand up. All the while, chating. I implore both, Asian, African and European shiekhs to include the adaabs of being in a masjid in the bayan's they will be making in the next consecutive four weeks. Its a must.
Abdul Razak – what would you prefer- that no action be taken or action to be taken? There was a valid complaint and something was done about it. There was no need to bring in other masjids and other such issues as you have mentioned.
Asians are also humans and there are also good and bad muslims.
In future please give constructive views and de-constructive.
Salaams All
Good initiative.
Good decision by the committee