Outdoor Ramadan Prayers

 photo from Wikipedia

I have a favorite mosque that I like to walk to for taraweh, the extra prayers said each night during Ramadan. The mosque has a large courtyard and takes up a small block. The streets are blocked off so that counting inside the mosque, courtyard and surrounding streets, there are about 4,000 people attending the prayers. I love to pray there, always outside, as the night breezes begin to cool the city.  It is about half a mile from my house, though, and this year I simply did not have the energy to trek there and back again after fasting 16 hour days in triple-digit heat.

There is another large mosque just 3 blocks away, but it has no courtyard and just as I expected, the first night I went there it was miserably hot inside.  Still, I wanted to make taraweh at the mosque rather than alone at home. The taraweh prayers are optional, as is going to the mosque to say them.  But the beauty of the rectitation and the spiritual energy of crowd in the cooling air was something I craved. The next night I resolved to just take my time and get to the further mosque.

That evening I left the house with a trashbag in hand.  On the way to the dumpster the bag leaked all over my hands and feet.  I stopped at a store and bought a bottle of water and rinsed myself off on the sidewalk.  I was nearly at the mosque when I realized I'd left the stool on which I sit for prayer on the sidewalk where I'd bought the water.  I hurried back, praying my stool was where I'd left it.  It was, but by then I knew I was late.

I reluctantly started to go to mosque where I'd have to pray inside.  That's when I made a wonderful discovery.  This smaller mosque faced a busy boulevard, but the back of it open onto a small side street that was blocked off. I never took this route past this smaller mosque on the way to the larger one  during Ramadan, and so I had never seen the people praying outside. But here they were.

From the chain of events starting with that leaking trash bag, Allah led me to a Ramadan mercy. I could pray close to home and still be outside after all.  

Ramadan Prayers in Morocco

Muslims do not believe that acknowledgement of their prophet will get them into paradise.  Unlike some Christians for whom belief in Jesus and baptism is enough to get them into heaven, or Catholics who can seek expiation for their sins from their priests, Muslims believe that every one of us will be judged individually and that each person has to ask forgiveness directly from our Creator. 

Ramadan is a  special time each year when through fasting and prayer, we can seek atonement, forgiveness, blessings and mercy. There are extended, optional prayers every night at the mosque.  Thousands of people gather for at each mosque all over Morocco for 90 minutes or so for these prayers.

With the call to Isha, the last obligatory prayer of the day after the sun has set, there is a Quranic recitation abt 10 or 15 minutes long as people gather in and outside the mosque. Once the recitation ends, the imam leds isha, the night prayer that has 4 rakats.  Each rakat is a complete cycle of standing, bowing and prostrating.  Standing again is the beginning of the next rakat.

Then the imam leads 8 rakats of taraweh, the special prayers that can only  be  made during the nights of  Ramadan each year.  Finally, some imams leads  2  rakats of  the  witr prayer. Many people pray a single witr rakat on their own before leaving the mosque. Other imams pray a 3rd rakat and include in it the qunut--the part formulaic and part spontaneous pleading while standing end of the witr prayer--lasts about 5 or 10 minutes.

It's hard to guage the time while in prayer, but the experience is truly powerful. Regardless of our level of understanding the Arabic, it is almost impossible to not feel the meaning during the qunut: to hear a grown man's voice break in his plea for Allah's forgiveness and His Mercy, to hear people around you crying softly; to see that you are among the thousands people at just that one mosque who have come voluntarily out of fear for their souls; to know that you are surrounded by people who are crying for mercy and forgiveness.
  
During the last 10 days of Ramadan  there are additional late night prayers in the Moroccan mosques. These are another 10 rakats of taraweh prayer that end with a long pleading for forgiveness, mercy, and blessings for ourselves; for our families; and for the less fortunate.  These prayers last another 90 minutes or so, and finish just in time for people to go home and eat before the start of another day of fasting.

The fast of Ramadan can be taxing, and those who are physically unable are allowed to either make the days up later or in other ways.  But the taraweh prayers are open to anyone who can make it out of the house.  People come walking and in wheelchairs.  Those who are not able to stand for long periods or have difficulty prostrating bring stools, camp chairs, folding chairs and lawn chairs.  Some just stay seated on their prayer rugs.

Some people are able to go to the mosque every night. Some only as their schedule permits. Some make their prayers in their homes.Some do not make them at all.  Those who do make the extra prayers during Ramadan find immense spiritual benefits that only come once a year.