Unacceptable “face” of Moonsighting in the Mosque

Unacceptable “face” of Moonsighting in the Mosque

Dear Brothers in Islam,

This issue of moonsighting in the mosque is a major issue facing our community, it comes up time and again. We need to come together and unite and stand up in the face of this confusion and say with one voice “it has to stop now!

Only last Juma’ I was unfortunate enough to be affected by this issue and had to run for cover. There I was, offering my Sunnahs and I got an eyeful in front of me and it was unsightly, pale, hairy and poking out above the belt line of ill-fitting jeans and below a short T-shirt!

This is one moonsighting issue that I am sure that we can all agree on, it has to stop!

Brothers! Please, please, please, when going to the mosque make sure that you are appropriately dressed and that your awrah is suitably covered. Also, take into consideration that when you go into ruku and sujud that you don’t expose your builder’s bum to the rest of the congregation. We don’t need to sight it. Once seen, there is no unseeing.

As men, we take for granted what we can wear and complacency can set in. We should take a leaf out of our dear Muslim sisters’ book on this. Since they have a much more “restricted” choice of what they can wear and are always concerned with their awrah. Somehow, us Muslim men have forgotten that there is a dress standard that applies to us too and it certainly doesn’t allow for us to air our buttocks in the masjid! Additionally, as the summer months approach, we’ll be donning T-shirts and this makes matters worse, T-shirts, jeans and salat don’t mix well. Sure, short sleeves are OK but it is khilaf al-awla – against customary practice – and perhaps not the best adab (manners) when visiting a mosque. “But brother, it’s summer, ya’ani, it’s too hot, we can’t wear more clothes than a T-shirt”, is probably the response from some people, well perhaps you should walk around in a jilbab and hijab for the day and see how the other half lives; kudos to our sisters in these summer months!

So, given the situation that a brother has displayed a “sajda shiner” what can we do? I thought about this last Friday and it is not easy to tell a brother that you have seen his butt when he was in sajda. For a start it is a crowded prayer room, chances are that you are not the only one who got an eyeful. If you leant over and whispered in his ear everyone would know what you are saying to him and the brother would feel that everyone is looking at him (which in all honestly was probably the case!) I just couldn’t bring myself to give him the nasihah that I should have, I chickened out. Any suggestions funny or otherwise? Comments please!

Joking aside, there is quite serious issue here (as if exposing oneself in public isn’t serious enough!) and that is the validity of one’s salat if the awrah is not covered. There is a real danger of invalidating one’s prayer and this should be reason enough to check your rear before your wreck your prayer!

10 thoughts on “Unacceptable “face” of Moonsighting in the Mosque

  1. asallamu alaikum
    funny!! But it is a serious issue, take note brothers!!
    your sister in islam
    asallamu alaikum

  2. It’s a common enough thing in India too. I’ve seen it a couple of times and have told the brothers after prayer that their Awrah was exposed and that it invalidated their prayer. They took it well.

  3. Asalaam aleykum,

    Oh dear that must have been a traumatic experience, hope you’ll get over soon.
    Alhamdulillah, we, sisters, don’t have to deal with this issue in masajid. However it makes me ponder on how on earth I am going to avoid setting my eyes upon an underwear (or worse):-o creeping out of a saggy/skinny trouser. Unfortunately that’s going to be more and more common, the sun shines the haya melts and the fashion is hitting the rock bottom (and obviously encourages to display bottoms shamelessly). And now it’s affecting the ummah, seriously guys get some dignity back for Allah’s sake.
    Nasiha in these circumstances can be difficult I agree. Maybe you should have adressed him in these terms “Dear brother who have prayed in front of me, what is this out of your trouser I see?” and take it from there. But the best solution would probably be to raise this problematic issue with the ppl responsible in this masjid and ask them to talk about it during the next khutba. We can also consider a “indecent exposure police” screening ppl getting into the mosque… but let’s not take such drastic measures and pray Allah swt that this summer will be cool and short ^^

    L.

  4. Masud, you got it right. Some double standards when it comes to men. Allah describes the blessed wives of the Prophet as our mothers, and sets them as examples and clarifiers of the Law Giver i.e. Prophet, but some how so, so many men have forgotten the Messenger of God as their male role model, hence the ‘badr alayna’ arising, or descending in our sufuf!
    If only we had that return to Medina…..

  5. Agree, I think this issue is not taken serious in the mosque, we have posters for turning off mobile phones. I think we need to have posters for this issue aswell, also it is a easier way of letting brothers know rather than approaching a brother, who might not take it the right way.

  6. A Jumua Khutba on the issue is necessary I feel. If the Imam mentions it in his Khutba, everyone will take note insha Allah and those doing it may realise their fault.

  7. Back in my University days, I recall that we ( the Muslim Students’ Association) had to have an announcement after Jumah tellling people about the Awrah and all. The sisters used to use the back of the prayer room and they would complain about this isue….

    Of course there were ( and are) other issues like smelly socks and bad breath….

  8. lol @ “sajda shiner”

    Last Ramadan during tarawih a brother (a big lad) praying in front of me had this problem. It was quite noticeable but it seemed no one wanted to embarass the brother (or were too scared) to tell him. I was directly behind him and didn’t want that site through the whole prayer so had to say something. I whispered to him “They don’t like crack in this Mosque, they frown upon it”. Took a couple of seconds before he got it, laughed and appreciated being told. He tucked in his shirt.

    About the Fiqh (Hanafi): as I understood, uncovering a quarter of the limb that is considered ‘awra invalidates the prayer. Each buttock is considered a seperate limb, but if the uncovering is dispersed over more than one limb, the total area must be equal to 1/4 of the smallest limb to invalidate salah. (Maraqih al-Falah).

    That’s 1/8th of each buttock to be precise, a lotta butt exposed before invalidating the prayer!

Leave a Reply to naeem Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.