Visiting Al-Firdaus

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The Olomouc Muslim Community are more than happy to invite members of the public to visit Al-Firdaus and get to know the Islam and Muslims better. One of our aims, besides providing a prayer space for Muslim students and locals, is to build good bonds with the public and to advocate for peace, mutual respect and understanding. We do not wish to seek animosity amongst anyone and so one of the best ways to build bridges is by understanding one another.

Scheduling a visit

For practical reasons, since our opening times are irregular outside of the Friday prayers, you can arrange a visit by emailing us at salam@alfirdaus.cz as well as contact us through our social media listed in the 'Contact Us' section.

As we are a religious establishment, we would greatly appreciate respect for our prayer spaces and so here we would like to list some basic guidelines when visiting:

Please leave your shoes in the hallway by the shoe racks.
Modesty is an important part of our religion so please wear modest clothing when visiting. This means avoiding wearing any short and revealing clothes.
- For women specifically, a headscarf or any hair covering is required to enter the main prayer hall. We can happily provide one for the visit.
Please keep your voice down if an ongoing prayer is taking place.
If you are not yet vaccinated, please wear a mask and disinfect your hands before entering. The disinfectant is available in the hallway.

The Czech language barrier

Since most of our community members are English speaking students with limited knowledge of the Czech language, there are only a handful of Czech speakers available. These include native Czechs as well others who come from abroad but speak Czech to a high degree.

If you wish to schedule a visit, please let us know if you are comfortable with English or if you would like us to have Czech speakers present when visiting. Our Czech brothers and sisters in the community are most happy to engage in friendly dialogue.

A few points about Islam

Islam is the most misunderstood religion in the world. Not only among non-Muslims but unfortunately even some Muslims too. Misunderstanding can grow due to various reasons, ranging from lack of exposure to practising Muslims, negative personal experiences, negative stereotypes portrayed by the media and far-right groups and overall, a general lack of education about what Islam truly is.

Our religion is however quite simple. Muslims believe in pure monotheism, meaning that there is only one Being worthy of worship - the one and only God. The true meaning of the name "Allah" by which we refer to God is unknown, but it is commonly understood that "Allah" is the conjugate of Arabic words "Al-ilah", meaning "The God". Grammatically, the word is neutral and impossible to put any genders on or create a plural form, which befits the nature of God in our understanding. It might be surprising to learn that even Arabic speaking Christians, such as the Coptic church in Egypt, refer to God as "Allah".

We believe in the same God as the Jews and Christians, hence, we are called the "Abrahamic faiths". We claim to follow the same religion as the prophets Adam, Abraham, Moses, Noah, David, Solomon, Jesus and finally the last prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon them all). They all preached the exact same, unchanged message of worshipping the one Creator.

It might also come as a surprise to hear that Muslims believe in Jesus too. His name is explicitly mentioned in our holy scripture, the Quran, more times than the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Unlike our Christian cousins, we don´t believe Jesus to be the son of God; rather we regard him as a prophet, sent to mankind to reinforce the message of pure monotheism.

It is a fact of today's world that there are nearly 2 billion Muslims according to Pew Research. Islam is also the fastest growing religion in the world, despite the negative press from the media about Islam and Muslims.

For those who want to learn more about Islam, to ask questions no matter how controversial, you are always welcome to visit us and sit for a friendly discussion. Although we do not have anyone the community who is a scholar in Islam, we are more than capable of covering the majority of practical matters.

For anyone seeking answers to complex matters beyond our scope, it might be better to send us an email so that we can refer you to the correct people who can answer your questions best. Many members of our community come from the UK and have access to scholars who can also assist in giving better answers.

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