Introduction to the Study of The Holy Quran — Page 286
286 They do this in a perfectly calm atmosphere undisturbed even by the strains of music. While so engaged no worshipper may look to the right or to the left nor speak to any other worshipper. The rich and the poor stand shoulder to shoulder with each other; the king may find his shoeblack standing next to him; a judge may have as his neighbour an accused person who is on trial before him and a general may be standing next to a private. No worshipper may object to another worshipper standing next to him nor may any worshipper be moved from his station to another. They all stand humble and subdued in the presence of God and bow and prostrate themselves and revert to the standing posture under the leadership of the Imam. During some of the services the Imam recites aloud a few verses from the Quran to impress their purport upon the minds of the whole congregation. In certain parts of the service each worshipper offers prescribed prayers or prayers of his own composition. In addition to the prescribed services Muslims offer prayers and devote themselves silently to the remembrance of God and ponder over His attributes, whenever during the day or night they can find the opportunity of doing so. Mosques are used not solely for the purposes of congregational and individual worship but for all kinds of religious and intellectual pursuits. They serve as schools and for the celebration of marriages, as courts of law and places of meeting where plans are settled for the social and economic progress of the community. The Islamic Fast The second form of worship which has as its principal object the physical improvement of the worshipper is fasting. The Islamic Fast differs from the fasts prescribed in other religions. A Hindu while fasting is permitted to eat certain kinds of food; the Christian Lent is also observed by abstaining from the eating of particular kinds of food, for instance, meat or leavened bread. A Muslim, however, while fasting may not eat or drink anything from dawn till after sunset. A part of the obligation attaching to the Islamic Fast is that apart from abstention from food and drink during the hours of fasting a Muslim must make special efforts throughout the month of fasting to attain to higher standards of virtue and purity. One lesson that the Fast teaches is that a man who abstains from the use of permissible things during the Fast should on no account indulge on any occasion in that which is prohibited. The period of the Fast, that is to say, from dawn till after sunset, applies to all countries where there is an alternation of day and night during twenty-four hours. At the extremities of the earth where this does not hold good the period of the Fast is to be determined with reference to the length of a normal day. This form of worship is also both individual and collective. Muslims are expected to fast individually on different days during the year but during the month of Ramadan all Muslims, wherever they may be, must observe the Fast.