The Encyclopedia of World Religions

mosque S 301

Mount Sinai. When the people proved unfaithful, God condemned them to wander in the wilderness without entering the promised land of Canaan. Moses himself lost the privilege of entering the promised land when in anger he lashed out at God’s instruction to draw water from a rock. At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses dies after looking upon the promised land from a distance. Deuteronomy says quite clearly that no one knew where Moses was buried. This statement gave rise to stories that Moses was taken up into HEAVEN , as the nonbiblical books The Assumption of Moses and Jubilees assert. The N EW T ESTAMENT book of Jude (9–10) alludes to a Jewish story in which the archangel Michael and the devil fought over Moses’ body. Outside sources do not even confirm his exis tence. The name Moses is Egyptian. And most scholars think that some kind of E XODUS from Egypt did occur, although the number of escaped slaves that is recorded in the Bible may be quite exagger ated. Many date the exodus, and thus Moses, to the time around 1250 B . C . E . Some like an earlier date around 1425. mosque A place for congregational PRAYER and assembly in I SLAM . Muslims pray formally five times a day. They may do so in an area set aside for prayer known as a mosque. This is especially true of the noon prayer on Friday, which ought to be done communally. A mosque is a walled enclosure that may or may not have a roof. All who enter the enclosed area must take off their shoes. Those who are entering to pray also wash themselves in prepara tion for prayer. The requirements of communal WORSHIP deter mine the furnishings of the mosque. Because Mus lims face M ECCA when they pray, all mosques are oriented toward Mecca. They also have a niche in the front wall known as a mihrab; it identifies the qiblah, the direction toward Mecca. In communal prayer, the prayer leader, known as the IMAM , stands directly in front of the niche. The gathered congregation of men forms

People sometimes speak of Moses as the “founder” of J UDAISM . Moses is a central figure in the history of Judaism, but his role is somewhat different from those of J ESUS , M UHAMMAD , and the B UDDHA , who founded C HRISTIANITY , I SLAM , and B UDDHISM . These other figures gave the religions they founded a distinctly new and definitive shape. But in important respects the religion of Moses is said to go back to A BRAHAM . At the same time, the religion of ancient Israel took shape around the Temple in J ERUSALEM , well after Moses’ time. Judaism as we know it today, rabbinical Judaism, came into existence only with the destruction of the Temple in 70 C . E . Nevertheless, Jewish tradition considers Moses to be the author of the written T ORAH , that is, the first five books of the Bible (despite the story of his death in Deuteronomy). He is also said to have received the oral Torah on Mount Sinai. Because the oral Torah forms the basis of the T ALMUD , it is customary to refer to “our RABBI Moses.” The only information about Moses is found in the Bible and related writings. At birth, Moses is said to have been placed in a basket, floated down the river, discovered by the daughter of the Egyptian king, and raised in the royal court. Very similar stories are told about other, earlier great figures in the ancient Near East, such as Sargon of Akkad ( c. 2350 B . C . E .). After killing an Egyptian who was abusing a Hebrew slave, Moses fled to the wilderness of Sinai. There he married Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, and received instructions from God to liber ate the slaves in Egypt. God also appointed Moses’ brother A ARON to be his spokesperson. In an attempt to convince the Egyptian king to allow the Hebrew slaves to leave, Moses called down 10 plagues upon Egypt. These seem loosely related to phenomena that occur in Egypt naturally. For example, Moses turned the Nile into blood. A certain microorganism, which grows in the river, actually at times turns the Nile red. The king of Egypt reluctantly agreed to let the children of Israel go free. When he changed his mind, the escape took place with some drama. In the wilderness, Moses received the Torah on