What Is A Mosque?

A mosque is a sacred place for Muslims where they gather collectively to offer prayers to the God. It is a collective affair and all Muslims follow the Imam's lead in prayers. During the ancient Muslims empires and other time periods mosques were also used as places where important decisions concerning a community were discussed and also had adjacent schools which taught both worldly and religious knowledge. However, in modern times a mosque has simply been relegated for prayer, worship or other religious practices and no worldly things are discussed anymore.

A mosque or masjid as it is known in Arabic is a place of worship where the Muslims, the followers of the religion of Islam perform their prayers (namaz). The word masjid itself has most probably derived from the Arabic word sajad which means to prostrate, an action which is performed by the worshippers when they pray.

Mosques have evolved throughout the ages from simple places of worship to centers of learning as well as economic and cultural activities. There are mainly two types of mosques according to their range of influence and also the religious activities undertaken; for example mosques which conduct the Friday prayers on a grand scale (jama'a) which have special religious significance are known as great mosques and are often built on an elaborate scale, while the other mosques used for daily prayers are simply known as masjids.

Mosques conducting the Friday prayers are more often than not architectural masterpieces employing the use of domes and minarets in various patterns. An important fact in the construction of mosques is that the direction to Mecca, the main religious pilgrimage centre of Islam in Saudi Arabia, has to be indicated as prayers are performed facing that direction. Most of the mosques built in earlier times were modeled on the house of the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of the religion of Islam and the first mosque was believed to have been built in Kaaba (Mecca).

Prayers are offered five times at different intervals in the day lead by the imam who reads from the Koran, the holy book of Islam, in the prayer halls of the mosque where one should remove his shoes before entering and also maintain a dress code; often women have a separate prayer hall and in some mosques non-muslims are forbidden entry.

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of the Islamic faith. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid (pl. masajid) (Arabic: مسجد — pronounced: /ˈmas.ʤid/ or /ˈmas.ˈɡʲid/). The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, privately owned mosque and the larger, "collective" mosque (masjid jami) (Arabic: جامع), which has more community and social amenities.
The primary purpose of the mosque is to serve as a place where Muslims can come together for prayer. Nevertheless, mosques are known around the world nowadays for their general importance to the Muslim community as well as their demonstration of Islamic architecture. They have developed significantly from the open-air spaces that were the Quba Mosque and Masjid al-Nabawi in the seventh century. Today, most mosques have elaborate domes, minarets, and prayer halls. Mosques originated on the Arabian Peninsula, but now exist on all the world's inhabited continents. They are not only places for worship and prayer, but also places to learn about Islam and meet fellow believers.

A muslim house of worship