It was the first time the Muslim Society of Guelph ever held a Friday sermon where Muslims prayed six feet apart each as opposed to their shoulders touching.
The reopening of the MSOG for Friday prayer comes after the government of Ontario officially rolled out phase two of reopening the province that allows places of worship to reopen at a 30 per cent building attendance capacity.
Muhammed Sayyed, president of the MSOG said the organization has only one main priority: safety.
“Yesterday, I worked till midnight to make sure the lines are there, made sure sanitizers, extra masks, extra prayer mats are there because people will show up from work and they have no masks and no sanitizer,” said Sayyed.
The MSOG is one of the few – if not only – local place of worship to reopen for service on the first weekend it was allowed to. Most Guelph churches remain closed for service.
Attendees were physically distanced and lined up outside the mosque wearing their masks. A volunteer was present at the entrance of both the men’s entrance and women’s entrance to hand surgical masks, hand sanitizer and Lysol wipes.
Attendees were encouraged to bring their own prayer mats, and if they borrowed one from the mosque they were told to take it home and wash.
Each attendee prayed on a marked spaced six feet apart from others. Different coloured lines on the carpet were assigned to each prayer service of the day so attendees make sure they don’t pray on the exact spot someone else did earlier in the day.
Friday prayer at the MSOG usually sees two prayer services on Friday to accommodate and space out the attendance of roughly 700 in the first service and 200 in the second one.
To ensure safety measures in the mosque, it is only allowing attendance of 20 percent building capacity. It also added a third service to ease distancing.
Friday’s prayer saw approximately 100 attendees for the first prayer and 70 for the second. The mosque is capping its attendees at 125 people and only allows 33 people in each room.
While attending Friday prayer in congregation is mandatory for men in Islam, Sayyed said it is important to inform the community that attending the mosque is absolutely not necessary during a pandemic and that anyone can pray at home.
“Especially when it's a health concern, it’s not obligatory anymore to come to the mosque,” said Sayyed.
Imam Mubeen Bhatt who led the sermon said while praying physically apart and lining up to pray is something the mosque never saw or did before, it's important to make do with what they have.
He said while the importance of standing shoulder to shoulder signifies unity and promotes togetherness, the mosque is adopting togetherness in a different form given the current circumstances.
"Obviously, after four months of being cooped up, this is also togetherness in some shape or form so everybody is kind of embracing that," said Bhatt.
