Lesson video

Hello there.

It's amazing to see you.

My name is Mr. Robertson and I'm here because I love RE and I think you will too.

Today's lesson is part of our big unit on places of worship, what makes them sacred? And today's lesson is all about different types of mosques.

It's called, "How Mosques Differ", and we're going to be meeting some different Muslims and finding out about their mosques.

I can't wait to get started.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe what you might find inside and outside a mosque.

This lesson has three keywords.

I'm going to say them first and then I would love it if you could repeat them back to me as loudly and as clearly as you can.

Do you think you can do that for me? I think you can as well.

Okay, so let's begin.

Our first word is mosque.

Fabulous.

Our second word is minaret.

Yes, well done.

And our third words are pray or prayer.

Brilliant.

Thank you very much.

So what are these words and what do they mean? Well, a mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. A minaret is a tower from where the call to prayer is often made and pray or prayer is speaking to or worshiping God.

By the end of this lesson, I think you will feel really confident about what these words mean.

So in today's lesson, we're going to be asking two questions to help us understand how mosques differ.

And our first question is going to be this.

What can we see outside and inside a mosque? So let's get started, shall we? We're going to meet some different people in this lesson and they're going to tell us about their worldviews and that will help us better understand mosques.

This is Nadia.

Hello, Nadia.

And she is Muslim.

Nadia has a Muslim worldview.

This is the mosque that Nadia visits to worship God.

Oh, that's a really beautiful building, isn't it? I wonder what you can see.

Let's look at this really carefully together.

Is there anything there you notice that might show it's a special building? Is there anything about the shapes you notice? Anything that you might see on this building that you might not see on every building that you see? If you want to, you might want to pause the video here and then really look carefully.

So what did you notice? There are some features that show that this building is a mosque, and I wonder if you spotted any of these.

So there is a tower.

Did you spot the tower? And it's got a special name, it's called a minaret.

And from that tower, a call to prayer is made and in some mosques, people or a loudspeaker might be there and play the call to prayer so Muslims know it's time to come to the mosque.

On a church, there's often a tower with a bell, isn't there? But there's not a bell on a mosque.

That's where the call to prayer is made.

Did you spot that? You might also have noticed that there is a dome and that's a large roof on top of the mosque.

And maybe some of you might have noticed that there's a crescent moon.

The crescent moon is the moon that looks a bit like a curving croissant.

And there's a dome, there's a moon on top of the dome, and there's also one on top of the minaret as well.

Can you spot that one? So why are there crescent moons on a mosque? Well, that's because it's a symbol of Islam.

So there are some clues that show that this building's a mosque.

There is a minaret, there is a dome and there is a crescent moon.

Let's check our understanding so far.

A tall tower from where the call to prayer is often made is called A, a clock tower, B, a minaret, C, a minbar? Hmm, can you remember which one it was? You might want to pause the video and whisper to the person next to you.

Did you say B, a minaret? You are right.

A minaret is a tower from where the call to prayer is often made.

We're going to meet someone else now.

This is Ahmed.

Hello, Ahmed.

He also has a Muslim worldview and Ahmed lives in Cambridge, which is a city in the east of England, and he visits his mosque there every week.

Shall we see what Ahmed's mosque looks like? So this is Ahmed's mosque.

Wow, what a beautiful building.

What can you see there? I can see a beautiful fountain with water in it.

I can see some beautiful gold writing and I can see that it looks like it's got lots of glass and wood and plants.

It was built in 2019, so it's a very new mosque.

Now we've got two photographs of the mosque.

I wonder if you can see some things that are similar or different to Nadia's mosque.

It does not have a minaret, does it? Can you see? But it does have a dome on it like Nadia's, a beautiful gold dome and it has a crescent moon as well on top of the dome.

So some ways it looks quite similar and in other ways it looks different to Nadia's mosque.

Ahmed says, "Let's look inside my mosque.

What can you see? What does it remind you of?" Well, what do you think when you look there? What an amazing building.

I can see lots of wood, it's almost like trees going up and holding up the roof, isn't it? And then there's a really beautiful space full of light and at the back I can see a beautiful golden symbol and maybe some writing.

This is the prayer room at Cambridge mosque.

It's where Muslims pray together.

Everyone takes off their shoes to pray.

Cambridge mosque uses wood as this is better for the environment and so Cambridge mosque is trying to be a really beautiful mosque that looks after the environment and protects nature as well.

What do you need to do before entering the prayer area in a mosque? A, take your books with you, B, take your shoes off, C, take your food with you? Can you remember what we just said? Pause the video and have a think.

Did you say B, take your shoes off? Yes, that's right.

Muslims take off their shoes in a mosque, which is why they have beautiful carpets on the floor.

Oh, now we've got a closeup of that bit of the building we were looking at before.

We can see it much better now, can't we? All mosques have a special part of a wall.

In Ahmed's mosque, it is decorated like this.

I can see some what looks like gold, can you? And some really beautiful writing that's in Arabic, which is the language of Islam.

I wonder why this is here.

It shows the direction of Makkah.

Makkah is a city in Saudi Arabia, which is the most important place for Muslims. It's a special city and Muslims face Makkah when they pray.

So that part of the building, that part of the mosque helps Muslims know the direction they have to pray in and they make it really beautiful and decorate it, because it's a sacred building.

Let's check our understanding so far.

I've got a true or false question for you.

Muslims have to face in the direction of Makkah when they pray.

Is that true or false? Think about that beautiful part of the mosque we were just looking at.

Pause the video, maybe whisper to someone next to you.

What do we think? It's true, isn't it? Brilliant, Muslims face in the direction of Makkah when they pray.

Well done if you got that right.

Nadia talks about her mosque.

She says, "My mosque holds a special place in my heart.

It's older than Ahmed's, but it's perfect to me.

I come to the mosque to pray in the prayer hall.

I remove my shoes and face Makkah." So she loves her mosque, but like Ahmed, she does a very similar thing there.

She removes her shoes and prays in the prayer hall.

Ahmed talks about his mosque.

He says, "I love my mosque.

I love to walk through the garden, remove my shoes and then join people to pray in the beautiful prayer hall.

My mosque tries to help protect our world by saving water and being made from wood." What's the main reason many Muslims go to a mosque? A, to read their favorite book, B, to pray, C, to buy food? Which of those is right? Pause the video and whisper to the person next to you.

Excellent, it's B, to pray, isn't it? Muslims remove their shoes and go to a prayer hall at the mosque.

Now, I've got a question for you.

We've got a photograph again of Nadia's mosque and Ahmed's mosque.

Now, they don't look exactly the same, do they? So how do we know they're both mosques? Can you think of things that they both have that show that they're mosques? What might they have on the outside that show that they're a mosque and what might they have on the inside that shows they're a mosque? Can you think of anything? Can you think of two or three things and either tell the person next to you or maybe make a note of it? What did you come up with? So you might have said, "Mosques have a prayer hall where Muslims can pray inside their mosques." You might've said, "Mosques have a special part of the wall, which helps Muslims know which way to pray." You might've said that Muslims pray facing Makkah.

You might've said that Muslims remove their shoes to go into the prayer hall.

You may have mentioned that both of those mosques had a dome and a moon as well.

If you got some of those things, you've done brilliantly.

For the second part of this lesson, we're going to be thinking about what are mosques like around the world? Let's meet Ahmed again.

He says, "I love my mosque in Cambridge, but I wonder if there are mosques in other countries and what they look like.

Let's find out." Wow, look at that beautiful mosque.

This is in a country called Morocco in North Africa.

What do you notice about this mosque? What does it look like? Is there anything you can spot there that you recognize? Well, maybe you noticed that it's made from stone.

It has a really tall minaret, doesn't it? But it doesn't have a dome.

And it's got these beautiful green, yellow and blue tiles, and we call these geometric shapes on the walls.

What a beautiful, ancient mosque.

Let's just check our understanding.

Every mosque will have a dome.

Is that true or false? Think about the mosque that we just looked at in Morocco.

Pause the video and whisper to the person next to you.

Excellent, it's false, isn't it? Because we can see from photographs that not all mosques have a dome.

The mosque in Morocco did not have a dome, did it? So well done if you knew that was false.

Wow, look at this mosque.

This mosque is in the Philippines, which is in the continent of Asia.

I wonder what you notice about this mosque.

It's really beautiful, isn't it? You might want to pause the video to have a really careful look at it.

What did you notice about it? I bet you noticed that it was bright pink, didn't you? It also has a minaret, doesn't it, on the left hand side.

We can see the minaret there.

It has many domes as well, doesn't it? Look, lots of beautiful domes and it also has lots of crescent moons.

Can you see those as well? And it's painted bright pink.

Why is it painted pink? Well, because in the Philippines, pink represents peace and love.

What a beautiful mosque.

What does the color of the mosque in the Philippines represent? Does it represent A, happiness and celebration, B, strength and bravery, C, peace and love? You might want to pause the video and whisper to the person next to you.

Can you remember what we said? Excellent, we said peace and love, didn't we? That's why it was that beautiful pink color.

Ahmed says, "I've also found out about a mosque in Mali in Africa.

It's made of mud bricks.

Every year, people rebuild and repair it.

It's been standing for over 800 years." Wow, that's incredible.

A mosque made of mud that has to be rebuilt every year.

What an incredibly beautiful idea as well.

Thank you, Ahmed.

So your task is now to draw or make your own mosque.

Your mosque could be big, it could be small, it could have patterns on it, it could have colors.

You might want to think about the mosques that we've looked at in Cambridge, Morocco or the Philippines.

It doesn't have to have a dome or minaret, but you might want it to.

You could make it out of any materials you like or you could draw it.

It's up to you.

Be creative and think about what we've learned about mosques and think about basing it on some of the things we've looked at.

Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Good luck.

Well, I wonder what your mosque looked like.

This is one that I drew, but yours might look very different to this.

I wonder if your mosque has a minaret or a dome.

Can you remember why a mosque has a minaret? Yes, it's where the call to prayer is, isn't it? It should have a prayer hall, shouldn't it, because all mosques have prayer halls and you might want to think about which mosques inspired you.

Which ones did you like best in all of the ones that we looked at? I hope you've enjoyed all of that.

Let's summarize what we've learned today then.

So we've learned that there are a range of different mosques around the world and they can look very different from each other, inside and outside.

We've learned that some mosques have a minaret where the call to prayer is made.

And we've also learned that all mosques have a place for Muslims to pray and a part of a wall that shows the direction of Makkah.

Thank you for being with me in this lesson.

I hope you feel you know a lot more about mosques now and I look forward to seeing you in another lesson soon.

Goodbye.