The Friday Service

The Friday service is one of the characteristics of Islam. Wherever there is a Friday service, there is a local Muslim community. In Muslim countries it is part of the self-evident rhythm of life: the preparations in the morning like having a bath and wearing fresh clothes, the call to prayer, the opportunity to assemble at a mosque to listen to a sermon and to pray together and afterwards to relax and socialize. This is taken for granted even in countries like Turkey that introduced the Sunday as the weekly public holiday.

The Friday service was introduced in Madinah after the hijra after the first mosque was built and the decision made for the human voice to call people to prayer. It was a focal point both in space and in time for the new autonomous Muslim community. Ever since, it has been one of the most self-evident practices in the Muslim world.

Let me jump across nearly 1400 years to the 1960s in Europe. Before mass migration, the only Muslims were business people and students, most of them men, cut off from their familiar environment in what was thought of as a temporary disaspora - cut off from each other except for tiny groups, that met in their homes or in rooms at the university or the students' hostel that they were permitted to use as guests. The first active communities were students' communities and they did a marvellous job organizing places for prayers and meetings and even the construction of one or the other mosque. But alas! Instead of the desired harmony there were constant discussions. Coming from different countries, there were many views from many different, even conflicting traditions.

For as Islam spread to various parts of the world, it was only natural for different traditions to emerge, depending on the climate or the cultural or socio-economic environment or the development of science and philosophy or triggered by practical questions. Among the latter, there was the question if, for whom and with what conditions the Friday service was obligatory. Of course scholars came to different conclusions, depending on where they saw the meaning in a given context. The Friday service is obviously an occasion to come together as a community, but what constitutes a community? Three, ten, forty? Men? Women? Does it need a village or town, a local or a central mosque? How far are people supposed to travel? Who is qualified to lead the service and to preach? Is the sermon supposed to be in the local language for people to understand and reflect or something formal in Arabic or some kind of combination? Where else would be a time and place to get food for thought? Is food for thought always what leaders or rulers like to give to people? Or is it rather about receiving directions and hearing admonitions? Or even about scaring people away from becoming creative and asking too many questions? If the preacher is biased or patronized by a regime, is listening to the sermon still obligatory? The Friday sermon is a powerful tool for the better and for the worse.

This sounds rather hairsplitting but these were the issues that had shaped the familiar habits in each tradition and that now posed a threatening challenge: if we do something other than we are used to, is it still the same? For some, the situation triggered a process of re-thinking on a level that many scholars in the Muslim world would hardly ever dream of. Others asked the scholars "back home" for advice. The answers ranged from the "easy" statement that the Friday service is not obligatory when it is linked with diffuculties to strict instructions to make it happen at any price or come home from the "un-Islamic" diaspora, as well as any shade in between. A lot was learned in those days both about Islam and about community dynamics. From the perspective of community building, there was a tendency to start with the absolute minimum of participants and to do what seems to make most sense.

In the meantime, the number of Muslims increased enormously. There are now mosques and Friday services at least in the major cities and towns as well as a number of organizations that provide good quality community work. There are men and women who make conscienteous efforts to raise the level of knowledge, confidence and ethical commitment. But the issues have not been solved yet. There still are many others that were not yet able to overcome the stage of improvising, that are afraid of asking the necessary new questions and of becoming part of the emerging discourse, that mirror a situation in many places in the Muslim world that has come far away from both spiritual and socio-political ideals. Nevertheless there is, for many Muslims in Western countries, a choice that we are grateful for.

"Friday Thoughts" are meant to be a contribution to the remembrance of God in the widest sense. They may provide some spiritual nourishment for those who are prevented by other duties from attending the Fridays service. For those who do attend the service, they may offer some additional food for thought. They may be enjoyed by anyone who likes informal studying or is just interested in Islamic thought. May they help towards a revival of thought, knowledge and hope.

In the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alteration of night and day there are signs for people of understanding, who remeber God standing, sitting and while (lying) on their sides and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You did not create all this as meaningless. Glory be to You! So save us from the suffering of the fire. Our Lord, anyone whom You admit to the fire You expose to shame, and for the unjust there is no helper. Our Lord, we have heard the call of a caller inviting to faith: "Have faith in your Lord!" and we do have faith. Our Lord, forgive us therefore our sins and make up for our bad actions and let us return together with the righteous. Our Lord, and give us what You promised us through Your messengers and do not shame us on the Day of Resurrection. You never break Your promise." Their Lord responds to them: "I will not let the work of anyone of you be lost, male or female. You belong to each other. Those who emigrated and were expelled from their homes and were persecuted in My way and fought and were killed, I will make up for their bad actions and admit them to gardens under which rivers flow - a reward from God's presence, and with God there is the best reward. (3:190-195).

(c) Halima Krausen, 2005