Prayers at Sunset

Cassandra Uretz

February 8, 2004

Two young men sit against the back wall of the mosque, keeping an eye on the door to see who comes in. Beside them, a bearded elder in gold-rimmed glasses makes a point of studying his Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, with dignified remove from their roving gaze.

Sunset prayer is starting later now, as New York's February chill melts away and the winter days grow longer. One by one, men stride or straggle into the mosque, shedding their thick sweaters and scarves like bears emerging from hibernation. Latecomers rush up to the second floor to purify themselves with ablutions, washing their hands, faces and feet, then run down again in socks or clogs that defy their mosque's angled stairs to slip them up.

Although the Islamic Cultural Center of New York's Friday prayers can draw as many as 4,000 of the city's estimated 600,000 Muslims, this Thursday evening has gathered a more intimate group of 50. The worshippers are mostly men, and all are men of color, but their ancestry circles the globe: there are Harlem tradesmen, West African students, Indians and Pakistanis, Saudi Arabians, Egyptians and Europeans. Many show a hard week's work in their faces, but their load lightens as they chat with each other in the mosque vestibule, getting in a little socializing as they slide their shoes into a cubbyholed wall and hang up their coats.

The mosque's stern outer hallways contrast with the bright, warm light of its inner sanctum. A rich red carpet covers the floor where the arriving men will kneel to pray, and white tiles blooming with red, forest green, sky and cobalt blue patterns line every wall, scrolled with Arabic scripture in ebony and gold. Decorated with colorful vines of Arabic letters and traditional patterns, the room appears to be a garden with its own supply of fresh air.

The men find spots on the carpet where they can face the "mihrab," a niche hollowed into one wall that indicates the direction of Mecca, the holy Saudi Arabian city to which Muslims direct their prayers five times daily. The mihrab is lined with sea green tiles, and has a darker green prayer rug at its base where the mosque's "imam," or leader, will stand as he chants the sunset prayers through a microphone.

The worshippers go through a second, subtler ablution as they cross the threshold into the room, nodding to each other before starting their prayers. Middle-aged men who entered the building as executives, cabdrivers, merchants or shoe shiners, wearing solid gold watchbands on their wrists or ten-dollar shoes in tatters, hold their shoulders differently as they enter. Some men become a little shyer as they walk inside, and some a little bolder, but the overall effect is one of social leveling, as they reveal a spiritual persona that is freed from the plane of economic status that dominates the secular world.

At the back of the room, curtained off but still facing the mihrab, is a "sisters" area where women can pray with modesty, bowing down without concern for their physical exposure. Kneeling in the little box, with its hard gray metal walls and a heavy canvas curtain blocking the men's activities, can give the feeling of being both locked inside a vault and swaddled in a warm blanket. Today, only one woman is attending the mosque's group prayer, and she keeps her eyes on the carpet as she bows to Mecca and recites scrupulously memorized Qur'anic verse to herself in low tones. But as the men pass by outside, they give the sisters' room a once-over to see who is here today, their eyes lighting up with curiosity.

Each man demonstrates his willingness to participate in the group by facing the mihrab and performing a personal prayer, bowing first with his head, then at the waist, and finally on his knees with his forehead to the floor. He recites verse from the Qur'an throughout the ritual, then waits for the collective prayer to begin that will include everyone at once.

Whether practiced in the home, at work, or in the mosque, the ritual prayer establishes a spiritual connection between the believer who prays, the Prophet Muhammad who founded Islam in the seventh century, and God, who Muslims throughout the world call by the Arabic name "Allah." Although Arabic is a highly gendered language, Allah is a deliberately neutral word, and signifies the whole of existence as one divinity.

With prayer, the Muslim demonstrates humility before Allah, submission to a common law of personal and social conduct narrated within the Qur'an, and brotherhood with other Muslims that transcends man-made divisions of statehood or tribal loyalty through shared faith.

Islam is inherently a religion of action, whose laws are perpetuated on an individual and social level through adherence to right behavior. Allah provides divine law to humanity through the Qur'an, and its believers bear witness to its truth through the obligatory practice of five "pillars" that support Islamic society: submission to the existence of one God almighty, almsgiving to the poor, pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, and daily prayer.

"When you are reading the prayer, every time you recite one verse, Allah responds," said Said, a 24-year-old Somalian whose friends at the Islamic Cultural Center admire him for memorizing the entire Qur'an as a teenager. "That means you submit yourself to be his servant."

When a Muslim submits to Allah's law by reciting Qur'anic verse and bowing toward Mecca, he opens him or herself to forgiveness. Although Islam reveres the Christian and Jewish traditions with which it shares a common ancestry, and discusses aspects of their scripture in the Qur'an, it renounces the concept of original sin and requires personal responsibility for one's actions. People may strive for goodness, but inevitably they stray from time to time, and Allah must send a prophet to restore them to their proper path. Sin arises from disobeying Allah's teachings, but can be repented through practice of the five pillars.

"You must clear your mind, and let go of earthly life. You purify your heart and mind, and do only for the sake of God and the way of the Prophet," said Elias, another worshipper at the mosque's sunset prayers.

A French Senegalese, Elias moved to New York five years ago from Paris. His Christian father and Muslim mother encouraged him to find his own spiritual path, and he chose Islam after exploring Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism. For Elias, Islam offered the greatest opportunity to address social issues with its ethical, service-oriented system.

Elias described prayer as the practice of commitment to Allah, his family, and society.

During the ritual, said Elias, "you pray in Arabic that Allah is great, then recite the opening verse of the Qur'an. After that, you can add any others. They can be for yourself, your family, sisters, friends."

At 5:25 p.m., the Imam Ismet Akcin Housny steps up to the mihrab, his head covered with a gold-trimmed cloth cap. He intones a series of Arabic verses from the Qur'an, the words burnished from years of practice. The men line up behind him, side by side, with toes and elbows touching. At precise intervals, they sing a response in Arabic, bow together at the waist, or kneel and place their foreheads to the carpet. The room fills with the safe warmth of a paternal embrace.

After ten minutes, the prayer concludes, the Imam retires to a cozy library behind a red velvet rope at the back of the room, followed by a few men who will remain at the mosque for evening prayers. The only woman in the group pulls her flannel scarf low over her forehead and scurries away, late for some activity elsewhere, but another arrives, a bubbly African-American in her early 30s, and takes her place.

As the men who have completed their prayers mill together, their spiritual release spilling over into chatty conversational ease, newcomers come in to take their place, their feet still pinched into their shape of winter shoes but starting to relax. The Imam emerges from his library, takes his place again before the mihrab, and calls out to New York's believers to join him.

(Updated April 9, 2004)