Khaled Ibn Al-Walid Mosque

Very nice people. Simple and generous on heart.

Beauty and peace full place

Its a good place

We are preying in this mosque 🕌

This is the mosque where I had my very first mosque experience. The people were remarkably kind and welcoming to me, an obvious outsider. A couple people actually introduced themselves to me and started conversations with me. In the beginning I was something of a de facto greeter ("assalamualaikum"), being that I was sat on the bench at the back by the shoes, eager to observe without really participating or calling much attention to myself. Eventually, however, as more and more worshipers filtered in, the smell of feet started getting to me, so I moved up to sit on the stylish, much more comfortable carpet. ("Good move, Mr. Milquetoast.") I listened to the same sermon twice—once in Arabic and once in Spanish—and unfortunately didn't understand a lick of it either time. My dear companion later informed me that it was much ado about the need to appreciate the wonders and blessings of creation, a message I would have thoroughly enjoyed but unfortunately missed out on due to my poor Spanish listening skills. Qué triste. I noticed a very diverse group here including Hispanics, Arabs, Africans, and Asians. I also noticed a diversity of distraction among the otherwise attentive worshipers: throughout the service two Indonesian guys were looking at and laughing about something on one of their phones; an African fellow picked at a callous on his foot. Overall, I thought mosque was a hell of a lot like church, except I guess for the shoelessness and the pewlessness. I enjoyed my first mosque experience, especially the fellowship I observed and the welcoming hospitality I encountered. I would be interested in having another mosque experience sometime.