The tests of the season

Here I was, walking to the underground mosque at UOB Centre – Raffles Place at c12.50pm. Not exactly early but not late, in time to sit down and catch a quiet moment to ready myself for Friday prayers.

The underground mosque at UOB Centre is just that. It is built in the basement of the towering UOB Plaza 1. There is a plaque at the mosque to explain that certain Muslim owners of property along Boat Quay gave up their land in exchange for the purchaser agreeing to build a mosque. Personally, I do not know of any formal religious establishment in the Raffles Place area and so the presence of the mosque there is unique in the Singapore context. More so that someone gave up commercial gain in return for the building of a mosque. This mosque will never be described as grandiose, and it can be a dark and claustrophobic, stuffy during Friday prayers, but a mosque to serve as a place for the faithful to pray nonetheless. I would even (with some embarresment) say that if I could find a more comfortable mosque, I'll readily choose that other. But it is always the location of your faith within, and not the location of your being around, that is important to faith and worship.

As I walked to the mosque, I saw a diplomatic car cruise past. These things do not attract much attention in Singapore (and I suspect, in any other part of the world as well) but I did look because I saw a flag fluttering on the front bonnet. Diplomatic cars are not allowed to be flagged unless the ambassador himself is riding; and so I looked. It was the Saudi Arabian diplomatic flag and God tested me immediately – I failed.

I quickly formed the impression that this diplomat was pretty brazen to be cruising around town so close to the call to prayer (and on Friday prayers as well); shouldn’t he be hurrying himself to a mosque to ready himself? He is after all, from Saudi Arabia, and it is the month of Ramadan. The car went ahead and I caught up with it about 50 steps ahead; the driver had parked the car and the occupant was nowhere to be seen. He must be visiting a bank, I thought. Nothing wrong with that since this is Raffles Place but it was Friday, and in the month of Ramadan as well.

I got to the mosque and sat down. It was beginning to crowd and started getting stuffy. It is always danky at the ablution area because we are in the basement where there is no air circulation and it was no different today. Just immediately prior to the prayer call, 2 announcements were made. The first was about the programs the mosque was running during Ramadan.

The second – “We would like to welcome the new Saudi Ambassador, …”

Jamie – learn from Daddy and not be hasty in coming quick to judgement. We must always find our more before we conclude. And remember, the faithful always pray wherever, whenever because God always listens and receives; regardless of the location.