Out Of Comfort Zone Essays Example

Following the goal of one of the courses I study, which required students to be pushed out of the comfort zone and choose places where they would be entirely uncomfortable, my selection was to visit the mosque. This is a choice I thought was better because I being a Christian was interested in knowing much about other religion and how they conduct their holy activities in the holy places. This would give me a new experience apart from the normal life of Christianity and the general church experience. This event was scheduled to take place in one of the mosques in New York City in the United States aided by a Muslim friend. This paper, therefore, describes the experience I encountered in the mosque, the differences I noted in the way they conduct their holy services, and my general thoughts and feelings about the mosque and Muslims.
At first I had conservative feelings when I was told I had to leave my shoes behind. This was a strange feeling to me and looking at the outline and display of the mosque, I felt like I was in a place where I wasn’t sure of the activities that were taking place. This feeling was build up by the notion I had about the mosque that it wasn’t that holy as the Christian church. I have felt at one point in life that whatever they worship is not real. However, growing and gathering a lot of knowledge about the Muslims and their holy house gave me courage to step up and visit the scene in order to gather all the information I wanted. This was my first visit to the mosque in my lifetime.
First of all, I learned that there are detailed and strict requirements for a given place of worship to be regarded as a mosque. There are certain restrictions on the former uses of the area that is to be considered a mosque. According to the Islamic law, once an area is finally designated to be a mosque, it remains to be so until the final day. There are no chances of changing the given place or building into something different that provides services not related to the mosque. This was the first different experience I noted because for the Christians, I have witnesses churches being turned into houses that offer different services including hospitals, clubs, and business enterprise buildings.
My notion towards the Muslims took a twist when I learned from my visit to the mosque that they have charity events that requires them to give an approximate of one fifth of their total belongings to charity. This was less expected of me because for the Christians, I have witnessed people offer their wealth just by their will and in amounts that they can manage. Even though people should be allowed to give out of their own will and ion whatever amount they can, I felt that the Muslims are far much a step ahead of us when it came to charity work. Their collective efforts of making offerings in uniform and in standard amounts made me feel like they are more charitable than some of the Christians I encounter. They have the ability to work as a group and help out the people they feel need their help through the charity events and contributions.
Some of the encounters I was uncomfortable with are their mode of praying in the church which required them to bend low as they said their prayers. I have a feeling that when praying to God, we the main idea is to convey the prayer to him so that he hears us out. It doesn’t matter the position or angle we are in as we say the prayer. I had an uncomfortable moment by having to go on my knees and bend in respect to their holy activities undertaken in the mosque. Comparing this to most Christians, I felt like there is some level of freedom when saying prayers rather than making it uniform. Some of the rules, to me were somehow irrelevant because when communicating with God, he will always hear us irrespective of what we have done and the position we are. This is according to my knowledge from the historical teaching of the Holy Bible. I also interacted with many people in the course and after the service and made many friends from the Muslim denomination. From them, I learned a lot of knowledge about their prayers where two holidays are held for the purposes of special prayers on the Islamic calendar. These are the Eid al-Adha and the Eid ul-Fitir.I also got a lot of information on their Ramadan events of which I only knew it from the casual point of view where Muslims fast for a period of some days.
I also had a funny experience of being convinced to be disciple into the denomination and exit my current religion. Personally, that is a crucial decision in life to make just at one instance and it requires a lot of evaluation and consultation from other reliable people in order to come up with a wise decision. Therefore, I had to give an immediate response that I needed time to make a final decision.
In conclusion, my encounter at the mosque shows that all denominations from Christianity, Muslims and Hinduism have a common goal when it comes honoring the most high. We all honor the same person, but the only difference arises due to the names of our denominations and the practices we are used to when we are in our respective holy places. People should, therefore, not use unproved theories and hear says to intimidate others because of their religion. People should cultivate the culture of respecting all the religions practiced across the world.