Answer
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Shaykh Faraz Rabbani from SeekersHub addresses this question in the video below:
Transcript:
Allah (SWT) tells us [quoting in Arabic] mosques are for Allah, right. So, the … it is very difficult to be disconnected, particularly in the stretched spaces of suburbia etc., from the mosque.
However, we have to remember that mosques are for Allah (SWT). It’s not about is this a welcoming mosque: is it not? One should strive to be connected to the mosque and encourage others to connect on that basis.
And also, one of the ways that can help if a masjid is not welcoming that people running the masjid may sometimes have particular understandings is if you attack them or say, be more welcoming.
They’ll say, just leave me alone. But if you encourage them that one of the sunnahs of the Prophet (SAWS) is that […] when the Prophet (SAWS) corrected, he corrected in uplifting ways. So, you wouldn’t just tell people: don’t do this. He would show them what they could do.
So, if you suggest positive ways, right, that you know if you do this I think more people will come, and that will, you know, and you put it in a positive way, right? So, there’s one masjid in Europe. I won’t mention which country.
I went there and it had this sign and, I kid you not, in the entrance: no visible tattoos, no earrings, no ripped trousers, no this, no this, no shorts just below the knees, forget about up above the knees. All these kinds of- I forget- there’s a long list of things.
That’s just for the men. There’s a longer list for the women. So, after we got to, you know, I wanted to comment on this to the imam. But first, you know, I was talking to him etc., asking how the masjid is running. And it’s very clear that sometimes people are harsh because of the avidness for the good.
But it’s expressed not in the right way perhaps. So, I just asked, you know, so this topic came up. I said, I noticed the signs are very interesting. He said, oh yes, we want to encourage people to uphold the sunnah, you know all these kind of things.
So, I just asked a question. I said, I wonder which would be more pleasing to Allah? To have two rows of people who are dressed in—I was using his line, his terminology— in sunnah clothing, if we could get two rows of such people in the masjid?
Or if we could get two rows of people with tattoos, earrings, and ripped trousers—three of the things that they mentioned in the sign. And the imam’s face lit up.
SubhanAllah, if we could get rows of people who are like that, they would benefit much more from the masjid because the people who are already dressed, quote-unquote, according to the sunnah, they’ve already benefited in their deen.
So, that’s an interesting line of reasoning. But I let it sort of come from him. [He] said, sheikh, you’ve opened my eyes. …
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