A group of men gathers to pray in a corner room of a second-story office building on East Plaza Drive in Santa Maria. On the street below and a few blocks over on Broadway, someone has hung Christmas decorations and twinkling lights, signifying the beginning of the Christmas holiday.
But unlike many of their neighbors, the men in the room aren’t celebrating the birth of Jesus, nor are they concerned about which stores are offering the best holiday sales. Right now, they’re all completely absorbed in performing afternoon salaah—an installment of the formal prayer of Islam.
The men stand side by side, facing northeast toward Mecca, behind a worship leader as he recites in lilting Arabic the holy prayers designated in the Quran:
“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious the Most Merciful … You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help …”
Together, the men go through every Rakaa, or unit, of prayer and corresponding movements, including prostrating themselves before the Lord. The room is silent, except for the murmur of whispered entreaties and the rustle of clothes.
To the unfamiliar eye, the salaah might seem like a mysterious, ancient custom. But to the followers of Islam, it’s a powerful and vibrant component of their faith.
In contrast to practitioners of many other religions, a believer of Islam worships God directly without the intercession of priests, clergy, or saints.
“The beauty of Islam is that no one owns it,” said Santa Maria resident Mateen Aliniazee, who led the Friday prayer at the Central Coast Islamic Center of Santa Maria.
“It’s all about submission to, and worshipping, God. It’s a personal relationship with God,” he said. “There is no go-between between you and God. I think that’s part of what attracts people of all cultures to the religion.”
But Islam is also very much about community and living in peace.
“Islam is not just ritual,” the center’s volunteer director, Mohammed Diab, said in a sermon following the prayer. “It’s how you treat your brother, your wife and children. It’s how you treat your fellow human being. Putting a smile on your brother’s face will be your reward.”
Pillars of the community
A Muslim’s duty is to balance leading a righteous lifestyle with caring for one’s family and community. This symbiotic devotion to both God and community is expressed well in the Hajj, the holy pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Hajj is one of the five pillars, or duties, of Islam that faithful Muslims are called to live by. According to the Quran, all believers who are financially able must go on a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime.
For five days, Muslims journey back and forth together between Mecca and several other nearby towns to pray and participate in holy rituals.
During this time, all of the pilgrims wear an Ihram, a garment composed of two white sheets. While wearing the Ihram, pilgrims may not have sex, shave, clip their nails, or wear perfume.
When everyone is wearing the Ihram, Central Coast Islamic Center’s Aliniazee said, “Status is of no importance. It’s all about sacrificing and purifying yourself in the presence of God. There is really no difference—black, white, yellow, brown—everyone is the same.
“There will be kings and prime ministers kneeling and praying right next to someone who can barely feed himself,” Aliniazee said.
Like a giant, white cloud, the pilgrims together perform a series of rituals meant to commemorate the lives of Ibrahim (Abraham), the founding father of the religion, and his wife, Hajra (Hagar).
One of the central rituals is the Tawaf, in which everyone enters the sacred mosque and walks counter-clockwise around the Kaaba—the central shrine of Islam—seven times.
Another essential ritual is the Sa’ee, which means “to run” in Arabic, and involves running or walking seven times between the hills of Safa and Marwah. This is a reenactment of Hajra’s frantic search for water when she and her baby, Ismaeel (Ishmael), were banished to the desert.
When Hajra went to search for water, the story goes, she left the crying baby under a shrub, and he struck the ground with his heel, releasing a gushing spring of water. To this day, the Zamzam well is still bubbling up, and Muslims are allowed to drink from it during the Hajj.
“It cures every disease, and it has nutrition, so when you drink it you’re not hungry,” said Santa Maria resident Mohammad Arain, who just returned from the Hajj. “Your body completely absorbs it.”
People come from all over the world to drink the water and be healed, Arain said.
On the third day—the busiest day of the Hajj—everyone performs the Ramy al-Jamarat, a ritual in which they stone three pillars in Mecca meant to symbolize the three times Ibrahim resisted the temptations of Satan while deciding whether or not to obey Allah and sacrifice his son, Ismaeel. While stoning the pillars, people often reflect on their own sins and recommit to living a righteous life in the eyes of Allah.
“It’s really very emotional. Once you get there, you truly forget the world around you—your family, the people praying next to you—you just want to pray, and ask God for forgiveness, and do the rituals,” Arain said.
At the same time the sacrifices occur at Mecca, Muslims around the world perform similar sacrifices as part of Eid ul-Adha, translated as the “Festival of Sacrifice.” Muslims split food from the sacrifices (usually lamb) equally among their families, the community, and the poor.
“For people who can’t go on the Hajj, it’s like the Muslim equivalent to Christmas,” said Imam Arif Komal, the leader of the Mosque of Nasreen in San Luis Obispo—the only mosque on the Central Coast.
This year, Muslims all over the Central Coast came together to feast and celebrate at a special dinner on the Friday after Thanksgiving and a picnic on Saturday.
“We were really lucky this year because the first day of the Eid fell on Thanksgiving, so we got it off [from school and work]. Usually our holidays aren’t recognized, so we don’t get them off,” explained Central Coast native Nahlah Kolkailah during a monthly gathering at the Ludwick Community Center in San Luis Obispo.
The center, along with the Mosque of Nasreen, is a central meeting place for about 400 to 500 Muslims living in cities from Lompoc to Paso Robles.
Kolkailah said having the monthly gatherings and celebrating the Islamic holidays with other Muslims gives her “a sense of identity and unity, especially in a small community where there isn’t very much diversity.”
“It means a lot to keep your identity and culture a part of you,” she said. “It’s not just about the festive feeling.”
Kolkailah added she is especially glad to be able to share her beliefs and traditions with her 3-year-old son, Yunus.
“We gets to learn the language and learn about the culture and who he is,” she said.
Each family is different when it comes to celebrating Eid ul-Adha. But Kolkailah said the main focus of the “greater Eid” is to commemorate the life of Prophet Ibrahim and thank Allah for the blessings in one’s life.
“A lot of people assume we only celebrate Ramadan,” she said. “When I explain the Eid ul-Adha to them, they’re fascinated.”
Rather than shying away from sharing her culture with other people, Kolkailah said she enjoys the interaction.
“I’d rather have someone come up to me and ask me questions, even if they think it’s trivial or uneducated, rather than judge me,” she said.
Unfortunately, she said there have been plenty of times when people did the latter.
“I’ve had people tell me, ‘Go back to Iraq or Afghanistan.’ It usually changes on what’s going on in the news,” she said.
And sometimes people’s prejudices can become dangerous: “Someone tried to throw a knife at my sister,” she said.
The way to fight such hatred and violence, Kolkailah said, is to educate oneself.
“Cultures are easy to judge when they’re taken out of context. But it’s not fair to label an entire culture based on what’s going on in the media. There are always two sides to a story,” she said.
“I think, at the end of the day, we have a lot more similarities in our religions and cultures than differences,” she added. “It’s easy to focus on the differences, but it’s so much more rewarding to look at the things we have in common.”
Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santa maria sun.com.
This article appears in Dec 17-24, 2009.