Friday, April 24, 2009

Praying in The Chapel

today marked the day for my very first time praying in a chapel  (a chapel is a small church attached to a hospital, school or a prison). today is friday, so i performed friday prayer in a chapel. i really didn't know that i was going to pray in a chapel until i arrived at the hospital which is next to my nest here.. approximately 5 mins walk from huia. in my mind was only a little prayer room that will be my new place for friday prayer coz the one that i usually go is not comfortable enough, plus this new one is far nearer than the other one. 

when we arrived at the lobby of the hospital (it's City Hospital which is so cool! just like a shopping complex) we looked at the legend. i looked for sign that says "prayer room" but there was none. i was told that the friday prayer is usually held at the sixth floor.. so we searched for sixth-floor-sign but we only found "chapel (quiet room)"... then we asked the person at the information counter and he said we have to go upstairs and ask the other information counter coz he wasn't sure. 

that level was completely different from the previous one; there were so many people wearing scrubs and was so busy.. haha.. just like in ER or Scrubs (the tv series). at that level's info counter we asked a lady the same question and she told us to go upstairs.. so we went up and we found a chapel.. i thought our question was not clear and specific enough.. so we looked for the prayer room all over the place .. lol.. luckily people there didn't realise that we're strangers.. haha..

we still didn't find the prayer room, so we gave up.. we used the lift to go downstairs and in the lift, there's one lady.. so i asked her. "excuse me, where's the prayer room for moslem?" that should be specific enough i think... "oo.. it's at level six"..  she replied.. then i asked her.. "is it the chapel?" "yup.. its a room for everybody to pray".. "oo.. ok thanks".. 

so we went up again and walked straight to the chapel. and there's a note ..."JUMA PRAYER at 1.30-2.00pm"... as we arrived there very early like 1 hour early, we went into the chapel. there, we found Qurans and lots of islamic books arranged nicely at the corner of the chapel while at the entrance, we found a bible and a log book. i'm not sure what's that but people write their prayers in that book. 

i was so... i am not sure what was that feeling.. amazed+mesmerized = amazing race?.. 

so how did i pray in the chapel. actually the chapel and the place for moslems to pray is divided with a curtain. to perform the friday prayer, we just have to open the curtain. that's all. another thing that is interesting is both moslems and christians can pray simultaneously. the christians pray at one side, and the moslems pray at the other side.

so basically, the point is, here in NZ we can pray everywhere but not in the toilet.. huhu.. (safwan.. haha).. there were times when we went to Sylvia Park and the prayers were about to end, we did pray in the changing/fitting room or wherever we can. the best damned place is at Kathmandu, Sylvia Park. it has a very huge fitting room! it fits two people at one time so we can save time.

*'we' here refers to Safwan, Syam and I..

9 comments:

  1. haha, usah disebut laa pasal toilet tu siap dgn nama aku skali plak tu...segan, haha~

    btw, chapel tu jgak dikenali sbagai quiet room...

    today's experience having our friday prayer inside a chapel and listening to the spontaneous khutbah was really something new to me...though, praying inside the fitting room was also another experience...

    pape pon, kite dh jumpe tmpat solat jumaat yg dekat dan selesa!

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  2. hehehe..kitorg kt sini pon semayang jumaat kat quiet room chapel kat hospital gak..same2..huhu

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  3. 'we' here refers to Safwan, Syam and I..
    ak xtemasuk ke??aloh......
    kiki

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  4. kiki lala.. bile mase plak ko semayang jumaat nih..

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  5. syira, ko smayang jumaat ke??? haha, nak ikut boleh aje~

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