Prayers In An Ahmadi Mosque

Unless one came to the United States in the last five years, it is hard to think that one does not know about Shaheen Sweets. It started as a small shop in Lexington Avenue in Manhattan in 1973. Then it had an exponential rise. By the time I came here in 1988, it was almost on its zenith. There was a sweet factory on Broadway in Jackson Heights, along with another restaurant in the area and the sweets were shipped all across the USA and Canada. Once I was in LA in an Indian grocery store and the only mithaee was of Shaheen. Later it had a slow decline when many competitions arrived, both Pakistani and Indian, and later Bangla Deshi. Now the Manhattan restaurant is gone, one in Jackson Heights is closed and the other is only a sideshow of sweets with the main food service by Dera restaurant. The founder, Abdul Hamid had retired and the sons presumably went their own ways. One moved to Baltimore. One grandson Zeeshan, opened a shop in Hicksville Long Island. That is close to our home and if food at our home is catered from outside, most of the time it is from there.

On Dec 11th, Naseer Sahib, the lifetime loyal of Shaheen informed me about the passing away of Zeeshan's grandmother and of the funeral the day after next, in the middle of the day,  I made necessary arrangements to be there.

So on December the 13th, I entered an Ahmadi place of worship for the first time in my life. Growing up we always had Ahmadi friends. Many a time due to my father's liberal interaction with anyone who was interested in talking, we had Ahamdi enthusiasts working overtime to convert him. I think he visited Qadian a few times in his early life. I grew up reading left over copies of Al Fazl newspaper all the times. But I never went to an Ahmadi mosque until now. 

Sometime during the gradual tightening of the noose on Ahmadi way of life in Gen Zia's time they were disallowed to use the word Masjid for their places of worship. So all of their  masajid were renamed as Bait. Perhaps they got so much used to it that they now call the masjid here in NY as bait; perhaps a way to distinguish themselves.

I had seen the place from outside all the times. It is on my way home. A friend of mine had told me months back that Ahmadis have bought a big place just off the Grand Central Parkway on 188th street. It is named Bait uz Zafar, named after the first Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Apart from being the most famous Ahmadi in Pakistan Movement, he has other claims to have a place of worship named after him. He has translated Quran in English and it a pretty good translation.

It is a converted place, perhaps a school or a church. Quite spacious for NY, and in the middle of a thriving neighborhood. A very prominent place. The entrance is very visitor friendly and has information on the Ahmadi creed on the walls. The display is pretty impressive with many translations of Quran by Ahmadis in various languages. The main hall is a divided auditorium, front for men and rear for women. 

It seems like that Ahmadis have more of an emphasis to have the head covered, for men. Not that much emphasis on the beard, however. Most of the bearded persons have beard like me, less than half an inch. I remember in old days it was called the  ahmadi dhaari.  People of recognized responsibility don the qaraquli cap, and most of the rest have some sort of a head gear. The pictures of all the leaders in the hallway had either qaraquli caps or the turbans, once make popular by their founder. I remember Dr Abdus Salam wearing that type of turban when accepting the Nobel prize.

The actual funeral was preceded by Zuhr Prayers. The azaan was the same as what I had heard all my life. Not that much emphasis on the melody of recitation. The imam who led the prayer was a traveler and led the prayer in the familiar way. All the rituals were like I have grown up with. In fact some of the other sects have somewhat different rituals and one is sometimes not sure how to follow, but not here. Most of the nonahmadi's like me prayed behind the imam. expect a few. Many of us Non Ahmadis were either trying to establish an eye contact with each other or actively trying to avoid that. In the end most of us did blend in. 

Imam had informed the congregation that he was a traveler and he will only pray for two rakats and the locals should continue the rest of the prayer on their own. That is the way it happens all the times. Somehow most of the congregation did finish the prayer with him, and joined him again for the two kasr for Asar prayers. Perhaps most were travelers like the Imam. 

The janaza prayer was also exactly the same as the sunni prayer. Although it is silent, but the Imam was mouthing the words in a big whisper ( as sometimes they do to guide the congregation on what to recite) and it was of the same sequence ie subhanakallahuma/darood/allahuma agfir-- and without the alhamd.

There was however no communal prayer at the end of the namaz or the janaza, like raising hands and offering supplications. 

Noticeable exception was that the women did not line up for the janaza. It may not be a creed thing. and perhaps the culture of a particular mosque. In our masjid  at ICLI, women do line up for funeral, if they desire so.

All things considered, it was not much different than any other funeral I attend. Somehow funerals and memorials have increasingly become a part of social calender, perhaps a factor of our age as a community. Going in I had cautious skepticism, coming out I felt somewhat good about being there.

Somehow I felt writing about it.