Backtracking....... to the Muslim Mosque!!

Our last up close visit of the summer was to a Muslim Mosque in north Philly. I was really excited for this visit because Islam is a religion that is huge today and is very relevant to my life at school as there are many Muslims on campus. 

The mosque we traveled too was not your every day, run of the mill mosque. This was a very westernized congregation of Muslims. It was a very contemporary style of Islam, but still held true to the 5 core aspects of Islam. The first is saying the good confession ("There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.").  The second pillar is praying five times a day facing Mecca, the holy city of Islam. The third pillar is giving a certain percent of their wealth to the poor every year. The fourth pillar is fasting and praying during the month of Ramadan. Finally, the fifth pillar is making the journey to Mecca at least once in your life. 

These are all guidelines Muslims follow in their faith. What does it gain them in the end? Not a whole lot. Islam is, again, a very action based religion. Muslims strive to do good, to do good works, and in the end have no real hope. They have no real way to know if they have done enough to gain salvation. 

Muslim people know of Jesus. They believe him to be a great man, and another prophet of Allah. They have trouble accepting that Jesus is the son of God, though. When we told the head of the Mosque and his friends what we believed about Jesus, they literally laughed. They cannot grasp that God would send a part of Himself to earth to die for a people that do not deserve it. Basically, they cannot accept the idea that we have been covered by free grace from the love of God. 

So many Muslims are seeking truth from above. A lot of Muslims have received visions and dreams of Jesus and have come to faith in Christ. Pray that God would work in big ways in the lives of Muslims and that He would conquer the stronghold of Islam!

(The picture above is a group of girls from our project with their head dressing on outside of the Muslim Mosque.)

Blessings!