Religion is the factor that unites Muslims of different ethnic backround, countries, social groups. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, commanded the believers to stick together, learning each other’s national customs and traditions, constantly developing themselves and enriching each other.
In everyday life, of course, every human being moves mostly in the same circles, such as family, friends, colleagues, and rarely leave them for something new. Ethnic diasporas of the large ones even prefer to attend the mosque where the Imam speaks their native language as well, so that to make religious education easier for themselves. For that reason, it’s very important for different communities to unite anyhow to hold some joint events. Maulid, for instance.
Imams of five Odessa mosques gathered at the local Islamic Cultural Centre “Al-Masar” in order to make a joint lesson and remembrance about morals, confined to the month of Prophet Muhammad’s birth. peace and blessings be upon him. Two hundred guests listened to Shaikh Shafiq (Imam at the mosque of Arabic Cultural Centre), Shaikh Mustafa (Imam of the Turkish Community Mosque) and Shaikh Noor-ur-Rahman (Imam of the Afghan Community Mosque). Representatives of the Uzbek Community Mosque limited themselves to simply congratulating their adherents upon that occasion.
After the guests finished their speeches, Mr.Bilal Hamze, Imam at the local Mosque, spoke briefly about the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) life, on his justice and truthfulness, his attitude to both relatives and friends, to people he both knew and met for the first time at all. “The best way to demonstrate your respect for the Prophet is fitting your life to his Sunnah by deeds, not words,”— the Imam stressed.
