I just got it in mail , have never heard it before so tell me what do you people think.
Please Call our MASJID “MASJID”! Not “MOSQUE”!!!
Difference Between MASJID and MOSQUE
Please read this and pass it on to any Muslims, as much as you can. It is a vital and important information. Muslims should now refrain from using the term “Mosque”. I was flipping through this book the other day called: “THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING ISLAM” (he-he, they call themselves idiots) and it is filled with fun facts. One of them concerns the term “Mosque.”
So many of us think this is the English translation of Masjid. I’m sure none of us ever wondered how this term came into being when it really had little in common with how it sounded compared to ‘Masjid’. (We were very young when we were taught this English word. Our minds then were not critical & analytical, so didn’t dare to ask/challenge our teachers, right?).
Anyway this book pointed out that the term ‘mosque’ is derived From the Spanish word for “mosquito.” It was termed as such because during the Crusades, King Ferdinand said they were going to go and swat the Muslims “like mosquitoes”. (Where else can they find Muslims in large number to be swatted if not in a Masjid?).
So, they cheekily termed “Masjid” as “Mosque”.
So, Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, refrain from using this term which is obviously a disgusting slap in the face to the Ummah. Educate our brothers and sisters to the history and etymology of this word. And let us replace it with the word which is MEANT to be used: Masjid! The Place of Prostration!! Not Mosque: the place to be swatted!
***If any of you have doubts about this, then Please look for the book and read it.
Once I taught a little Sikh kid (the little was in the beginning of talking some words) to speak ‘Allah’, he liked it and used to roam around the house chanting ‘Allah, Allah’, till his grandmother got the pronunciation and banned my entry.
I taught him Namaz too, but it is for next time.
That was a very unlikely story for the origins of the word "mosque".
It only bears accuracy in that the term "mosque" almost certainly entered the english language via Spanish. Anyone who has studied spanish will be easily able to trace the evolution of the word from Masjid through to the current Spanish Mezquita and through to the English Mosque
When Muslims began building masjids in Spain, obviously the Spanish needed a name for the new building. Spanish has no pronounced syllable for "j" (a "j" being pronounced in Spanish as a "kh" or "qu" in english.)
The nearest syllable in Spanish to the arabic "jeem" is "qu".
Hence "masjid" would begin to look "masquid". You now need to account for other linguistic factors in Spanish
1) "Mas" is a very harshly pronounced syllable in spanish - "Mes" is closer to the arabic pronounciation of the first syllable of "masjid". The word now looks like "mesquid"
2) All spanish nouns that originated from Arabic are assigned the female gender, meaning the word ends in "-a". This makes the word now into "mesquida".
3) In all western european languages, before the advent of dictionnaries in the post-Rennaisance period there was no standardised spelling. The rather foreign-soundingsounding "mesquida" would have over centuries evolved into the much more flowing and spanish-sounding "mezquita", an overall softer word that is less harsh to pronounce, in common with other Spanish words.
4) Similarly, in time, the word was incorporated into the English language simply by using the first syllable. The spanish "mesq" syllable became the English "mosque".
Thank you mad_scientist, you saved my time. I had received this mail long time ago, and had to reply with some website links saying what you have said here. :k:
Lack of knowledge/history is really…
and many people forward such mails without trying to verifying it. I hate that.
That's one fo the reasons it's good to show someone else, to find out if it's true or not. NOt everyone has that much knowledge or acces to sources to find out if it's true or not.
Thank you people,especially mad. I had same dilemma as described by changez i didn't want to send it because it sounded a bit phony and i also wanted to make sure.
