Ahead of Friday congregational prayers today, over 375 mosques, community centres and prayer facilities in the UK had confirmed the suspension of congregational prayers. This comes in the week that the Muslim Council of Britain called for the suspension of all congregational activities in Muslim communities, including prayers, events and weddings. The decision has not been taken lightly, given the centrality of prayer and congregational prayer to Muslims.

Among these are some of the biggest mosques in Britain, including East London Mosque, which holds 7,000 worshippers, London Central Mosque which sees over 5,000 people, and Birmingham Central Mosque which regularly hosts over 2,500 people on Fridays. This figure is based on those that have been identified by the Muslim Council of Britain as having suspended services but is by no means the total. There are expected to be many more mosques and prayer facilities who will have also suspended congregational activities.

The MCB made this call on Monday 16^th March in conjunction with expert medical advice provided by the British Islamic Medical Association and theological justification provided by a number of Muslim scholars, consulted through the British Board of Scholars and Imams. Both groups supported this call, citing a continuation of business as usual as “unsafe and harmful”, and believing the individual obligation to perform Friday prayers in congregations be temporarily lifted.

Commenting, Harun Khan, Secretary-General of the MCB said:

“Safeguarding all of our communities is paramount, and it’s reassuring so many mosques and prayer facilities have heeded this advice in trying their best to minimise the spread of the coronavirus.

“Crowds at mosques draw the elderly, vulnerable and those who are high risk.  With the increasing rate of transmission and the number of deaths, for the safety of our families, our communities and society, we cannot afford to take any risks.

“We all have an Islamic and public duty to protect one another from harm, and I hope the remaining mosques, Islamic centres and prayer facilities across the UK take this extraordinary step in these unprecedented times and suspend all congregational activities.”

Al-Akram Mosque in the Malaysian capital city Kuala Lumpur has introduced an amazing way to offer rice to the needy population (Zakat beneficiaries) through a specially designed ATM Machine.

To collect the rice, users tap a card on the machine’s sensor. The machine will then dispense 2kg of rice.

Others can make donations by depositing cash (including Zakat) through a slot in the machine. The proceeds will go towards purchasing more rice.

We thank Al-Akram Masjid’s management and the parties involved in this amazing project and can encourage other Masjids to play a more active role in helping others!

It’s 2019! Your Masjid should have had a website decades ago with the rise of Web 2.0, as it missed the Web 1.0 era.

We’re living at a media-driven time, we’re connected to brands and people 24/7 through social media and communication apps like WhatsApp. However, we’re struggling to connect with our local Mosque. We aren’t familiar with the founder, the Imam or the committee members. We simply pray our daily and Friday prayers and leave without any engagement or attachment to the place.

Surely we should have more connection with our mosques? Here are 5 reasons why every Masjid should have a website to better communicate with their attendees:

1. Prayer times

Our prayer times in the UK is constantly shifting due to long days of summer and short days of winter, on top of the clock change. An average Muslim can’t keep track of prayer times and we need to check our local mosque website for start time, end time and Jamat time!

2. Increase Mosque income

Muslims are the most generous people in the UK and we all want to donate to our local Mosque for all the great work they do! For example, keeping the mosque open even after the Jamat times, cleaning up Wadu places and keeping the place warm during cold winters.

We want to donate but nobody carries cash anymore for bucket collections. So it’ll be really handy to have a donation feature on the website.

3. Promote events

There’s always something going on in Masjids, from sisters bazaar to youth clubs for children. It would be amazing if we could see upcoming events and plan ahead to attend it.

4. Be found

If you’re like me and travelling often to new places for work then you need to find a masjid in that area fast. How do you look for a mosque? You Google it. How does Google know you exist? You have a well designed and coded website.

5. Engage your musallis

You don’t have to wait until Friday/Jumuah Khutbah to convey an inspiring reminder to Mosque attendees, you can send daily positive and inspiring reminders through your website and social media to people globally. Imagine the rewards of reaching thousands!

6. Be welcoming

Mosques and Muslim organisations have become victims of negative press by the media in recent years and one of the great ways to combat that is by having your own voice through the website. Naturally, people are scared of the unknown and this includes even our fellow non-Muslim neighbours who will feel at ease and feel welcomed knowing their local mosque is transparent by promoting their upcoming events, showing what facilities are available or how does the prayer hall look inside.

We’re super excited to make Mosque Platform live! The aim of the platform is to provide beautifully designed and well-built websites to every masjid in the world with comprehensive features, such as:

Prayer timetable
Beautiful & easy to read daily or monthly prayer timetable set by you.

Receive donations
Receive fast & secure one-off or monthly donations using all major cards.

Events calendar
Share upcoming event poster and details, also let visitors see past events.

Make announcements
Notify visitors when the moon has been sighted for Ramadan & Eid.

Accessible on all devices
Masjid Platform is responsive, it works on all desktop, tablet & mobile devices.

Fully managed
Fully hosted & maintained by us but you have the full admin access.