RIYADH: The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance has ordered extensive arrangements at mosques around the Kingdom to accommodate the additional rush of worshippers during the fasting month of Ramadan.
The holy month will begin on Friday or Saturday, depending on the sighting of the moon. All imams and muezzins have been instructed to keep their mosques tidy and ensure adequate supplies of water during the month to cater to the large numbers of worshippers who will attend Taraweeh, the special prayers that follow Isha prayers during Ramadan.
The department has supplied sufficient copies of the Holy Qur’an to the mosques and has laid new carpets wherever necessary.
Workers of private establishments hired for maintaining mosques have been asked to be on duty at night during the holy month to guarantee uninterrupted supplies of water and power.
The Department of Mosques under the ministry operates more than 5,000 mosques in Riyadh alone while some mosques in remote areas have been built and run by philanthropists. Improvised partitions are being built in mosques that do not have separate prayer halls for women worshippers. Some of the mosques are busy replacing old carpets with new ones and others are being color washed to give them a fresh look.
“We expect a larger congregation for Taraweeh prayers,” said Abdullah, the imam of a mosque in Riyadh’s Nasseriyah district. He said the holy month offers a good opportunity for Muslims to greet one another and engage in good deeds that would be richly rewarded by Almighty Allah. “We are making every effort to give the worshippers a conducive environment to offer their prayers in serenity and peace,” he said.
Tents are being built adjacent to some mosques to enable worshippers who come for Maghreb prayers to break their fast.
In Jeddah, a volunteer group has launched a campaign to clean and maintain a number of mosques to prepare them for worshippers during the holy month.
Jamal Abdullah Al-Mundhiri, head of the Friends of Jeddah Program, said 20 volunteers from the group were participating in the campaign that covers mosques on Al-Thalatheen and Al-Madaris roads in addition to those in Al-Ashraf and Al-Sawayed districts.
“The program is keen to prepare the mosques before the advent of Ramadan. This is within the pioneering volunteering ideas of the youths in schools and universities who are fully supported by the administrators,” he said.
The residents of Kilo 14 are also participating in the campaign.
“The project focuses on cleaning the mosques, maintaining electricity, plumbing and repairing air conditioners and loudspeakers in an atmosphere marked by high spirits and a desire to deliver by the volunteers,” Al-Mundhiri said.
He explained that volunteer work usually intensifies during the summer break. “We are implementing awareness programs against dengue fever, cleaning the Corniche and the public parks, increasing the environmental awareness among the residents and furnishing the homes of the poor,” he said.
Al-Mundhiri said the Friends of Jeddah recently launched a site on the Internet to inculcate the spirit of volunteering among students.
— With input by Muhammad Humaidan in Jeddah
