South Windsor High School’s Islamic Cultural Club has recently gotten permission to hold a weekly Friday prayer within the school’s basement. This gives Muslim students the opportunity to be able to pray the important congregational Friday prayer without having to leave school grounds.
Every Friday around noon, Muslims often hold an important congregational prayer, typically at Mosques. But by holding it at school, students are able to pray, reflect, and congregate without leaving school grounds.
In addition to a prayer, a sermon is often held before the prayer to discuss ideas and give guidance to the worshippers, with the sermon often featuring a different topic each week. The main topic of the sermon is often pressing or relevant issues at the moment.
“This is an opportunity for every Muslim in South Windsor High School to freely pray in their own school,” Islamic Cultural Club member Mohammed Bilal, said. “With the cooperation of Mr. Zeuschner, a room has been reserved only for us to pray.”
With the help of Islamic Cultural Club members and beloved Associate Principal, Mr. Zeuschner, a room was reserved in the school basement for 30 minutes every Friday to hold the prayer.
Many Muslim students are grateful for this opportunity due to the significance and importance of the weekly Friday prayer to Muslims. It is a privilege many Muslims across various schools don’t have.
“Prayer is one of the five pillars of Islam, and we are so grateful for being given this opportunity,” Bilal said.
As of now, the weekly prayers only attract a handful of Muslim students as it has only recently been established, making it difficult to have larger congregations. But club members intend to increase the student count that attend these prayers.
“In the future I would like to organize a schedule for the room to make it more accessible during prayer times as well as working with the school to maintain it,” Islamic Cultural Club member and Junior Fatimah Majid, told The Prowl.
Issues with scheduling and organization have made it difficult to spread the word, but the weekly prayers have proved promising with increasing counts over the last few weeks.
In addition to allowing students to perform their religious duties, the weekly prayers also help spread awareness of the club and their fundraising efforts for the rest of the school year, especially the holy month of Ramadan.
This opportunity for Muslim students helps to further enrich the already diverse school community. By to represent a vibrant culture of open mindedness and acceptance of other’s beliefs, both the school and Muslim students benefit
This is an exciting new milestone for both the school and Muslim community in South Windsor High School, and leaves room for more efforts from the Islamic Cultural Club in the future.
