A Night at the Mosque

Why not, I said. If they can have "A Night at the Museum", I'll have "A Night at the Mosque" .

Thus last weekend, I managed to gather about 40 ladies from my Islamic Ladies Club to spend a night packed with religoius activities at the beautiful 'floating' Melaka Straits Mosque right by the edge of the famous Straits of Malacca.

We started with dinner before the evening prayers - rice with chicken curry and veggies, sponsored by one of the members in the group. It was lovely sitting with the group and enjoying the sea breeze. Then it was prayer times, Maghrib and Isyak, with the Imam of the mosque. In between the Imam gave a short talk on the arrival of the fasting month. That being over, the ladies pair-off for the "Tadarus Al-Quran" session whereby one would read a page of the Quran and her partner would check her reading and vice versa. It was about 11.00 pm when the 30 chapters of the Quran were read by the group. Before tucking in to sleep, we had a late supper also sponsored by several kind-hearted souls. When it was time to slumber, it was quite difficult actually. No. 1 , we had to lie on the hard floor of the mosque covering ourselves with whatever coverings we brought along. And No.2, someone would crack a joke and that would cause some laughter. I couldn't get a good night sleep but sleep we must because we had to be awake at 4.00 am for the special night prayers (Qiamullail) led by one of ladies in the group. The night was very still and quiet and that helped us to focus in our prayers. The praying session ended with Suboh, the obligratory early morning prayer. After that, I led the ladies outside in the cool, dawn air to do some stretching exercises and the Tai-chi.

Well, we did achieve what we wanted after "A Night at the Mosque". The group agreed that we should do it again next year.

Checking the reading of the Quran

Prayer time in the wee hours of morn

Let's stretch . . . .

Finally, breakfast before departing.