The Grand Mosque Bradford
All of KS2 travelled to Bradford yesterday to learn more about the Islamic faith by visiting their very sacred place of prayer and worship.
Bilali, our guide for the day, welcomed us at the door and led us all around the inside and outside of the Mosque. We began with the grand entrance hall with a huge glass chandelier and as we looked around, Bilali pointed out all the different symbols and features around us. We moved on to the place for ritual washing (called wudu) before prayer, which was a huge bathroom where Muslims will cleanse by washing the face, arms and feet; before wiping the head. We then moved on to the main prayer room where we learnt all about the weekly homework set my the Imam every Friday. This encourages the community to do good things – either for each other or for God’s creation – linking our Christian Values with Islamic beliefs.
We learnt more about the five pillars of Islam too; about the festival of Eid and Ramadan from our expert guide and the children had many interesting and valuable questions to ask!
We even remembered to step in and out of the Mosque using the correct foot first (the right foot) which we had learnt from Mohammad at our live-linkup with him the day before our trip.
The Grand Mosque also provided us with delicious treats at lunchtime for both children and staff; and each child was presented with a gift bag containing information books, quizzes, pens, stickers and more!
Thank you to everyone at the mosque for making us so welcome and teaching us so much about faith in our communities. We all valued our experience so very much and will certainly be back in a few years time when our current infant children move up to the juniors.
