Year 4 visit the London Central Mosque

In Monday afternoon, as part of our Other Faiths learning, Year 3 & 4 visited the London Central Mosque for Islam Week. It is so important to learn more about other faiths and show tolerance and respect to all faiths, an important British Value for everyone in our society!

At the Mosque we learnt more about the history of Islam in Britain and how many Muslims came to live in Britain from all around the British Empire. King George VI kindly gave the Muslim community some land next to Regent’s Park to build a place of worship. It took 34 years for enough money to be collected to build the Mosque but after lots of hard work, enough money was raised and the Mosque was designed and build by Sir Frederick Gibberd in 1977, who also designed the Liverpool Cathedral.

Next, we visited the library where we saw a model of the Mosque in Medina that was built by the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the place where the prophet lived and is buried, which is a very special place for Muslims to visit.

We then went to visit a very special part of the Mosque which is called the main prayer hall. Before we went in, we took off our shoes and some of our teachers covered their hair to show respect. We heard about the different parts of a Mosque including the dome, the minbar where sermons are delivered from, a mihrab which is an arch that faces towards Mecca and the minaret where the call of prayer is sung from. We learnt that Mosques are decorated with special Arabic calligraphy which come from the Holy Qur’an and special 5 pointed stars which remind Muslims about the 5 pillars of Islam.

At the end of our tour, we visited a special exhibition about the life and work of prophet Muhammad (PBUH). We learnt about the 5 pillars of Islam, which are the 5 things Muslims try to do in their lives. We heard about how the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had the Holy Qur’an revealed to him and how Science is a part of Allah’s perfect plan and creation.

Thank you so much to Mr. Mezzi at the London Central Mosque for our tour and for aswering our many questions, and a special big thank you to all of the parents who accompanied us on the trip! We couldn’t do it without you!

What was your favourite part about visiting the Mosque for Islam Week?