Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal will open a workshop on the social role of Friday sermons and mosques, to be organized by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance in Makkah tomorrow, an official of the ministry said.
Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Saleh Al-Asheikh will also attend the workshop, carrying the theme “Responsibility and Participation of Mosques and Friday Sermons in Making an Ideal Man,” the undersecretary for mosque affairs at the ministry, Tawfiq Al-Sudairy, said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency yesterday.
The workshop will discuss the importance of the Friday sermons in promoting human values. “Islam is keen on a khatib (Friday speaker) discharging his duty skillfully,” Al-Sudairy said, stressing the significance of Friday sermons at mosques from individual and social standpoints.“It is the duty of a khatib to take up the huge responsibility that is growing continuously these days. He should employ this means of communicating in the best possible manner within the general framework of Islamic regulations.
It should educate the Muslims and guide them to their worldly and eternal welfare and to their society’s benefit,” Al-Sudairy said in his statement.Islam strongly stresses the need to organize and attend Friday congregational prayers including the sermons in all towns, and it warns against absenting from the compulsory religious duty because of business or other worldly activities, he said.The khatib delivers the sermons directly before the noon prayer.
A mosque serves as a center for information, education and dispute settlement apart from a place where Muslims can come together for five daily obligatory prayers.Many ancient centers of learning in Muslim countries were launched in mosques. The same word, “jamiah,” is used to mean a mosque and university in Arabic.In another development, the ministry’s branch in Qassim province said it built or repaired 100 mosques at the cost of SR25 million in 2011. – Arabnews
