Ramadhan is the month when many Muslims attempt to restore themselves to their origin of creation. Muslims are obliged to fast and pay alms (zakat) at the end, and are encouraged to pray more than usual.
During Ramadhan, mosques are busy. The Islamic place of worship becomes the center of Ramadhan-related activities. Muslims perform tarawih prayers, break their fast, collect zakat and attend religious sermons in the mosque. But, is this what mosques are all about?
The improvement of the role of the mosque is not forbidden and not an innuendo (bidah); it can be seen as an attempt to restore the mosque’s original function.
The first mosque built by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was Quba mosque, followed by Nabawi mosque in Madina. Nabawi mosque gave birth to various functions of a mosque. They are the place to worship God (salat, zikir); a consultation and communication center to discuss economic and social problems, an education center, donation center, military defense training center, hospital, conflict settlement court, meeting hall and
information center.
There are at least 640,000 mosques in Indonesia (Indonesia Mosque Council, 2010). However, these days, mosques are only utilized to perform spiritual rituals and exercises such as salat, zikir, sermons, zakat, and iktikaf (spending a night of contemplation in the mosque).
With the high frequency of natural disasters and the availability of mosques in Indonesia, it is high time to optimize the role of the mosque. In other words, mosques actually have the potential to play a role in disaster mitigation. This is not an overwhelming statement.
During times of emergency, several mosques in West Java and West Sumatra sheltered affected people, stored and distributed humanitarian aid from donors, coordinated the community, the government and stakeholders, encouraged people to help out and provided psychosocial therapy to survivors.
Al-Hikmah mosque in Cigalontang in the West Java town of Tasikmalaya and Toboh mosque in Kota Dalam in the West Sumatra town of Padang Pariaman demonstrated that despite their sacred state they were open and accessible places for other parties in need when earthquakes struck. Interfaith collaborations worked well in those mosques in the response to the disaster.
If mosques are involved in such humanitarian affairs, we may question if a mosque remains a sacred place to worship God. According to Lefebvre, the term “sacred place” is actually defined when there is an objective condition which has been socially and historically transformed. This applies to mosques.
If a mosque changes into the fetishism of space, then there is no chance to optimize its role beyond its prayer-wise activities.
Historically, transforming a mosque from a sacred to a public space is not a new idea. Anchoring to current understanding, however, some might resist this idea. This is because it may violate the holiness, respect and dignity of the mosque.
Nevertheless, with regard to time and space relations, particularly if a disaster strikes a certain place, there should be a significant leap of the mosque’s role from a sacred to a public space, although this does not entirely force it to abandon its
sacred roles.
A public space is one where every individual from within or outside the social system can access and utilize its objective functions. Therefore, it would not be surprising that non-Muslims could also access mosques. This is because mosques have two kinds of space: the objective and the sacred space. Non-Muslims can utilize the objective space, such as the mosque terrace, sanitary facilities and other areas, which would not violate the prerequisite of the sacred space.
Although a mosque could function as a public space, it keeps its transcendental values intact. A mosque is therefore able to provide a special and strategic place which can connect spiritual needs (hablumminallah) and material needs (hablumminannas). At time of disaster, this is what the affected people have badly needed.
This idea resonates in Islamic teachings, as the Koran says: “Help you one another in virtue, righteousness and piety, but do not help another in sin and transgression” (QS. Al Maidah 5:2).
Inside a mosque, there is a touch of humanity of the same faith and between humans. Hence, whoever has the intention to do good things for the affected people will have to be approved to use the mosque,
albeit with certain limitation.
Beside that conceptual debate, mosques generally have sturdy infrastructure. Usually, the funding for building a mosque is collected from donations. And Muslims do that for transcendental reasons — if they build a house to worship God, then they build a house for themselves in heaven. Therefore, mosques are stronger than ordinary houses. As a result, mosques would mostly survive when other buildings collapse.
If mosques across the country could play a role in disaster management, then Indonesia has a great community resource to respond to calamities.
The writer is co-author of The Preliminary Study on the Potential Role of the Mosque in Disaster Situation in Indonesia and a researcher for the United Nations – Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) Indonesia.
