8/17/2019 A Mosque for Miami

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A mosque for Miami…

Why a mosque?The religion of Islam requires that a believer pray

at (but not limited to) certain fied parts of the day!

 before sunrise" #ust past noon" late afternoon" #ust past sunset" and in the evening$%eing able to see the sun and shado&s is essential$

A Muslim can perform the ritual prayer any&here$All it requires is a clean surface and an attempt to face to&ards the 'aba$

The 'aba is a sanctuary in Mecca audi Arabia$

Tradition holds that it &as built as a place to &orship the *ne +od

 by Abraham and his son Ishmael$The ,irection to&ards the 'aba is called the qibla$

-or Miami the qibla is ./ to the 0ast of 1orth$

A niche in the &all called the mihrab helps orient the &orshiper$

2emoving shoes 3eeps the surface clean$

%efore prayer a &orshiper performs a ritual ablution$To get the hands face head and feet &et &ith clean &ater is all that is required$

The ablution must also be performed before touching the 4uran because it is considered

to be the &ord of +od revealed to 5is final prophet Muhammad$A believer should as often as possible read the 4uran

do other acts of remembrance called 6i3r

or supplications to +od called dua$

 1one of these ritual acts of &orship (performing the prayer" performing the ablution"

reading 4uran" doing 6i3r" or ma3ing dua) require a mosque$They can be done any&here at anytime$+od and the 7rophet Muhammad prescribe these rituals as a means to attain peace

though Islam is by no means a ritualistic religion$

An important dimension of the religion is the concept of a3hlaq or good character$It is self8sacrifice prescribed as a means to attain beauty or ihsan

To be good is to sacrifice one9s time energy and material gains

for the benefit of others

so that one is able to remove enough of the self and &orship +od &ith full a&areness$

These charitable actions also can be done any&here and anytime$

All of these acts of &orship are dependant on a personal intention$

They are for the benefit of the individual

offered to a ,ivine %eing&ith the hope of being accepted as a means$

A means to &hat?

To be graced by +od &ith :ompassion 7eace and ;ove in this lifetime$

And granted entrance to 5eaven in a life after death$

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o if this &orship is requested (and at particular times required) to be performed

any&here anytime then &hy have a mosque?

%ecause &hile there is that personal aspect to these act of &orship as described above

there is also an equally important communal aspect to each of themAnd it is in response to this communal aspect

that the architecture of Islam developed$

sometimes adapting eisting architecturesometimes recycling architectural remains

and of course over time creating ne& architecture$

%y architecture I mean a constructionconsisting of an arrangement of solids and voids

that &or3s effectively in the contet in &hich it is built

and accommodates the human activity for &hich it is built$

%ecause Islamic &orship does not require an architecture

it can be done in any architecture$o if a &or3 of architecture is built for it

that architecture should be done as a good deed li3e any other act of a3hlaq$

And it should succeed as a &or3 of architecture$

-or it to be a good deed it must do no harm$

%ut ho& do I determine if it is successful as architecture?