Student perspectives on worship services from Instructor Jennifer Garvin-Sanchez\u27s Religious Studies 108 Human Spirituality course at Virginia Commonwealth University

Taylor, Toni

English

VCU Scholars Compass

Virginia Commonwealth University
VCU Scholars Compass
RELS 108 Human Spirituality School of World Studies
2015
Muhammad Mosque No. 24: "My Islam
Experience"
Toni Taylor
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/rels108
Part of the Religion Commons
© The Author
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of World Studies at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in
RELS 108 Human Spirituality by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact libcompass@vcu.edu.
Downloaded from
https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/rels108/93
After weeks of contemplating about which religious service I wanted to attend, I 
finally decided to go to a Mosque Since I’m 
interested in learning more about this religion 
at hand. I attended a Mosque by the name of 
“Muhammad Mosque No.24” which I attended 
a couple of months ago before they moved 
downtown on Main St., as well as recently for 
this assignment. I will use both of my expe-
riences for this paper. They are now located 
Downtown at 408 E. Main St. They only have 
a Study Group on Fridays so I attended what 
they call a “general lecture” service on Sunday 
September 6th from 11am to approximately 
1pm. The service was led by Honorable 
Minister Louis Farrakhan.  
 
Last January they were forced to give up 
their large, steepled space on South Side. 
Muhammad Mosque No.24 is now currently 
operating out of a leased space that doesn’t 
really give a feel of a Mosque so I will use my 
older experience which I think will show how 
a greeting at a Muslim service is really like. 
There current building is white with simple 
windows. It looks like a random building you 
would see in a city. There older building was 
actually an old church building that still had 
the cross on top. It was a pretty big building 
made of red brick. When you enter the build-
ing you’re greeting by a man and women. In 
the Christian religion these would probably 
be referred to as “ushers”. After they greet 
you, they escort the women to one room and 
the men to another room to be searched. I 
RELS 108 Human Spirituality | PAGE 1
Muhammad Mosque No. 24: 
“My Islam Experience”
by Toni Taylor
was taken back by this at first but my friend 
quickly explained to me why all Mosques 
partake in this. She told me that after the 
assassination of Malcom X every Mosque in 
the world started searching and confiscating 
things like pocket knives. They even take 
badges from police officers because they 
believe that in the Mosque those rights are 
basically nonexistent, and everyone is equal 
there. When I entered the room they just did 
a simple pat down and then pointed us in the 
direction of the room where the service would 
be held. When I walked in I noticed that all 
women sat on one side and all men sat on the 
other side. There were two woman (ushers) 
standing on the wall of the women’s side and 
two men standing on the wall of the men’s 
side. When I looked toward the front where 
the minister would soon speak, I saw two men 
standing. One on each side of the pulpit. They 
were the minister’s security. I never knew the 
nation of Islam still took the death of Malcom 
X so personally even now so many years later. 
At first I really couldn’t understand why they 
were so uptight with everything considering 
how long ago he was assassinated, but then I 
had to sit back and appreciate their religion 
and their loss of one of their icons, and it all 
started to make more sense to me. After tak-
ing everything in I looked around and noticed 
that the Mosque was filled with only African 
Americans which wasn’t that shocking to me 
because of the location of this Mosque at that 
time. There were about 30 to 40 people and 
most of them were middle aged. When waiting 
RELS 108 Human Spirituality | PAGE 2
Most Ministers, including Honorable Minister 
Louis Farrakhan (the minister of the mosque 
I attended) lead based on the teachings of 
Elijah Muhammad, so it’s only right that they 
sell bean pies after service. “Final Call” is also 
a product of Elijah Muhammad. He published 
this Muslim Newspaper in the 1930s as well 
and it’s been evolving ever since. It is the 
official communication organ of the Nation of 
Islam. At first I thought that the bean pies and 
the newspaper were just nice gestures after 
service but then after doing some research I 
found out how symbolic and meaningful these 
two things are for their religion. My experi-
ence was very enjoyable and I would definitely 
go again just for the great experience. •
Written Fall 2015. © Toni Taylor.
for the service to start, I felt pretty uncom-
fortable because I was basically the only one 
not dressed in Muslim attire. I soon felt at ease 
about it because I went with my friend and her 
family who were dressed like the rest of the 
congregation.  
 
When the service started I got much more 
comfortable because things felt more familiar. 
Their service is almost identical to a Christian 
church service. The only difference is that 
they don’t have a choir and their offering is 
taken up at the end of service instead of the 
middle of service. It was also brought to my 
attention that their offering is for charity 
whereas at my Christian church we take up 
several different offerings, most of them for 
the church and the pastor.  
 
During service they said things like “teach” 
and “go head” which also reminded me of my 
church. After service most people walked 
around and greeted one another. Everyone 
seemed very friendly and I like how they 
welcomed me even though I wasn’t of their 
faith. They asked me questions like how I 
enjoyed their service and would I come visit 
them again. I told them how their service was 
comforting because parts of it reminded me of 
my church and they were happy to hear that I 
was planning to attend another service in the 
future.  
 
After about thirty minutes of socializing, we 
all walked outside and there were stands with 
bean pies and newspapers. Bean pies were 
created in the 1930s, born out of the strict 
dietary code of the Nation of Islam. Elijah 
Muhammad was the leader of this movement 
and is also the Nation of Islam Leader and 
messenger. His book entitled “How To Eat To 
Live” set guidelines for eating to prolong life. 


Muhammad Mosque No. 24:  My Islam Experience

Virginia Commonwealth UniversityVCU Scholars CompassRELS 108 Human Spirituality School of World Studies2015Muhammad Mosque No. 24: "My IslamExperience"Toni TaylorFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/rels108Part of the Religion Commons© The AuthorThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of World Studies at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion inRELS 108 Human Spirituality by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact libcompass@vcu.edu.Downloaded fromhttps://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/rels108/93After weeks of contemplating about which religious service I wanted to attend, I finally decided to go to a Mosque Since I’m interested in learning more about this religion at hand. I attended a Mosque by the name of “Muhammad Mosque No.24” which I attended a couple of months ago before they moved downtown on Main St., as well as recently for this assignment. I will use both of my expe-riences for this paper. They are now located Downtown at 408 E. Main St. They only have a Study Group on Fridays so I attended what they call a “general lecture” service on Sunday September 6th from 11am to approximately 1pm. The service was led by Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.   Last January they were forced to give up their large, steepled space on South Side. Muhammad Mosque No.24 is now currently operating out of a leased space that doesn’t really give a feel of a Mosque so I will use my older experience which I think will show how a greeting at a Muslim service is really like. There current building is white with simple windows. It looks like a random building you would see in a city. There older building was actually an old church building that still had the cross on top. It was a pretty big building made of red brick. When you enter the build-ing you’re greeting by a man and women. In the Christian religion these would probably be referred to as “ushers”. After they greet you, they escort the women to one room and the men to another room to be searched. I RELS 108 Human Spirituality | PAGE 1Muhammad Mosque No. 24: “My Islam Experience”by Toni Taylorwas taken back by this at first but my friend quickly explained to me why all Mosques partake in this. She told me that after the assassination of Malcom X every Mosque in the world started searching and confiscating things like pocket knives. They even take badges from police officers because they believe that in the Mosque those rights are basically nonexistent, and everyone is equal there. When I entered the room they just did a simple pat down and then pointed us in the direction of the room where the service would be held. When I walked in I noticed that all women sat on one side and all men sat on the other side. There were two woman (ushers) standing on the wall of the women’s side and two men standing on the wall of the men’s side. When I looked toward the front where the minister would soon speak, I saw two men standing. One on each side of the pulpit. They were the minister’s security. I never knew the nation of Islam still took the death of Malcom X so personally even now so many years later. At first I really couldn’t understand why they were so uptight with everything considering how long ago he was assassinated, but then I had to sit back and appreciate their religion and their loss of one of their icons, and it all started to make more sense to me. After tak-ing everything in I looked around and noticed that the Mosque was filled with only African Americans which wasn’t that shocking to me because of the location of this Mosque at that time. There were about 30 to 40 people and most of them were middle aged. When waiting RELS 108 Human Spirituality | PAGE 2Most Ministers, including Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (the minister of the mosque I attended) lead based on the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, so it’s only right that they sell bean pies after service. “Final Call” is also a product of Elijah Muhammad. He published this Muslim Newspaper in the 1930s as well and it’s been evolving ever since. It is the official communication organ of the Nation of Islam. At first I thought that the bean pies and the newspaper were just nice gestures after service but then after doing some research I found out how symbolic and meaningful these two things are for their religion. My experi-ence was very enjoyable and I would definitely go again just for the great experience. •Written Fall 2015. © Toni Taylor.for the service to start, I felt pretty uncom-fortable because I was basically the only one not dressed in Muslim attire. I soon felt at ease about it because I went with my friend and her family who were dressed like the rest of the congregation.   When the service started I got much more comfortable because things felt more familiar. Their service is almost identical to a Christian church service. The only difference is that they don’t have a choir and their offering is taken up at the end of service instead of the middle of service. It was also brought to my attention that their offering is for charity whereas at my Christian church we take up several different offerings, most of them for the church and the pastor.   During service they said things like “teach” and “go head” which also reminded me of my church. After service most people walked around and greeted one another. Everyone seemed very friendly and I like how they welcomed me even though I wasn’t of their faith. They asked me questions like how I enjoyed their service and would I come visit them again. I told them how their service was comforting because parts of it reminded me of my church and they were happy to hear that I was planning to attend another service in the future.   After about thirty minutes of socializing, we all walked outside and there were stands with bean pies and newspapers. Bean pies were created in the 1930s, born out of the strict dietary code of the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad was the leader of this movement and is also the Nation of Islam Leader and messenger. His book entitled “How To Eat To Live” set guidelines for eating to prolong life. 

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Muhammad Mosque No. 24: My Islam Experience

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