which he will in all likelihood forget during the six days to follow; it is a place which sends forth, as it were, the blood of spiritual life, hour after hour, into the veins of the Muslim, and thus keeps his mind imbued with higher thoughts, and his heart alive in a real sense.

A training ground of equality

Being a meeting-place of Muslims five times daily, the mosque serves as a training ground where the doctrine of the equality and fraternity of mankind is put into practical working. It is undoubtedly true that every religion is based on the two fundamental principles of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, but it is equally true that no religion has been so successful in establishing a living brotherhood of man as has Islām, and the secret of this unparalleled success lies in the mosque. The mosque enables Muslims to meet five times a day, on terms of perfect equality and in a spirit of true brotherhood, all standing in a row before their great Maker, knowing no difference of colour or rank, all following the lead of one man. All differences and distinctions are, for the time being, obliterated. Without the mosque, the mere teaching of the brotherhood of man would have remained a dead letter as it is in so many other religions.

The mosque as a cultural centre

Besides being its religious centre, the mosque is also the cultural centre of the Muslim community. Here the Muslim community is educated on all questions of its welfare. The Friday sermon is a regular weekly lecture on all such questions, but, besides that, whenever in the time of the Holy Prophet and his early successors it became necessary to inform the Muslim community on any matter of importance, a sermon or a lecture was delivered in the mosque. Even during his last illness the Holy Prophet came out into the mosque and delivered a sermon to the people.

In addition to this mass education in the Prophet’s Mosque, there were also arrangements for the education of those who wanted to acquire learning. Men who had to be trained as missionaries for the spread of light and learning in distant parts of the country not only received their education in the mosque but also lodged in a place,