Yaseen Foundation (Belmont, San Mateo County, CA)

"Belmont?  What are you going to do, write about their shoe racks again?"

My editorial board can be kind of sarcastic sometimes.

The Belmont masjid is a little different every time I see it, which, admittedly, is not that much.  In my defense, whenever I'm heading out to dinner in San Francisco, I never say, "hey guys, let's go to Belmont instead, that's a real happening town."  Therefore, I only visit once a year during Ramadan, and my impression of it changes each time I do.

I am fairly disappointed that the Belmont masjid still hasn't raised enough money to move into a larger space. Last night I had to clamber over a mountain of shoes (not enough shoe racks!!) just to get into the facility.  Men who couldn't find space in the prayer hall were praying in the hallway (blocking the emergency exit, mind you).  Women who couldn't find space to pray were being told to wait in the car (I'm guessing).

Yes, prayer real estate is at a premium here in Belmont.  If you find a spot inside, you best stay there the entire night or else you will lose your spot.  This isn't a showing of The Dark Knight Rises; you can't just throw down a jacket on a theater seat to claim a space.  That would create a gap in the prayer line, and if you're not praying shoulder-to-shoulder, feet-to-feet, Satan's praying next to you.  And the last thing the Belmont board of directors wants is for Satan to pray with them.  Although, wait, Satan and his minions are chained up during Ramadan...

On a serious note, I learned something last night.  Taraweeh is prayed in sets of 2 rakats.  Last night, the imam prayed a set of 3 by mistake.  Confusion reigned.  After the set ended, men got up and started exclaiming at each other in Arabic.  A mistake was made, shabab!  Ya'ni, It had to be fixed, habibi!

I still have no idea of what really happened.

You know why I don't?  Because everyone was speaking in Arabic, and the imam proceeded to fix his mistake by praying a 1-rakat unit of taraweeh (unheard of, I thought).  Belmont, that was a teachable moment.  Someone should have taken the time to explain what happened in English, and why they fixed the mistake with a 1-rakat set.

Still have a lot of love for this masjid, though.  I just wish they'd focus their fundraising and find a bigger space.  Yeah, it's tough to raise money, but honestly, if you keep overcrowding your small space you will inevitably become a nuisance to the neighbors.  The only neighbor who would potentially be sad to see you go is the ampm convenience store down the street.  Apparently, that's the crack spot in this neighborhood where kids bored with taraweeh go to blow their parents' money on junk food.  Point being, there's no room in this masjid to provide the youth a safe and healthy space to spend their Ramadan nights.

I have faith that Belmont will get there someday.  They've already began addressing the space issue by renting out the Belmont Sports Complex for taraweeh prayers on Fridays and Saturdays.  Excellent first step, let's just hope their long-term solution isn't to rent out the Sports Complex 7 days a week.


Date Visited: July 19, 2012

Location:
621 Masonic Way
Belmont, California 94002

Tag-team taraweeh: Yes. They flew in one imam from Egypt and the other they imported from Detroit (ha).  Kind of a shame that they're not using prospects from the Fremont hafiz farm system, however.

Qirat: Good stuff.

Size of congregation: 100 men, 40 women

Capacity of center: 150 maximum

Parking: Very tight.  They have a lot, but it's clear this neighborhood can't support the parking crush Ramadan brings.

Mihrab: Yes

Minbar: Yes

Shoe shelves: Not enough shoe shelves!

Building: Great little building located relatively close to the freeway and a major peninsula thoroughfare.  The location is great, the space is just too small.

Friendliness towards women: Women are welcome and treated with respect and dignity.

Friendliness of congregation: Very congenial and diverse group of men, I must say.  The fact that it was the first night of Ramadan had everyone in a good mood as well.  The gentleman making the announcements was in such good cheer he wished everyone Ramadan AND Eid Mubarak.

Yaseen Foundation (Belmont)

Change has come to Belmont’s little mosque.

The charismatic young imam, Abdurrahman, left a couple weeks before Ramadan to return to England to be with his family. I wish him all the best, but my insider told me that this has led to a frantic search for a new imam. He expressed trepidation about a couple people on the short list to replace AR. Change has come, and it may take some getting used to.

Due to the imam’s departure, Belmont has reached across the Bay and plucked three young brothers from Fremont to lead the nightly prayers. It’s a testament to their parents, their teachers and the East Bay hafiz farm system (I like baseball analogies), but they were phenomenal. The recitation was quick but easy to understand, and I don’t know if it was their idea, but they chose very short chapters of the Quran to read during the isha prayer preceding the taraweeh. Wonderful idea, because taraweeh these days has to start at 9:35-ish at the earliest and you might as well shorten the prayers you can so everyone can get home at a decent hour, especially those of us driving great distances to complete an insatiable quest to visit as many masajid in Ramadan as possible.

The aspect I liked best about Belmont’s taraweeh was following the 8th rakat, a man gave a small lecture about the ayahs the huffaz had read and were about to read. Such a practice helps the congregation connect better to the Quran they’re listening to and I commend the mosque leadership for instituting such a practice.

Unfortunately, the one change the mosque desperately needs has still not come. The congregation has swelled in size in comparison to what I remember last year and they clearly need a bigger space. It seems like it’s standard practice for men and women to use the main entrance to enter and exit the building, but last night was so busy they asked (not ordered, asked) the women to use the side entrance due to the crush of men using the hallway.

Last year, when describing the women’s section, I used some sarcasm which clearly did not translate well to the page. This mosque is very female-friendly and the women’s section has a large almost floor-to-ceiling window looking out from their section so they can see the imam. There is no cloistering or sequestering of women at this mosque, I can assure you. Yes, their section has a door, but it’s their choice whether to keep it open or closed, and it’s the men’s responsibility to have enough modesty to not look in there. Obviously I didn’t meet any female leadership, but I’m sure this mosque has one, given the respect the men were showing the women. After prayer, there was a woman in the hallway collecting her shoes while we were exiting and men were showing her deference by walking around her to avoid unnecessary physical contact, a desirable practice in Islam.

When I came in 2010, I was able to enjoy a meal with the community and revel in their openness. Circumstances dictated that I could not do that this year, but there was still coffee and Middle Eastern sweets in the hallway for everyone to enjoy. The mosque leadership implored us to enjoy them but also smilingly asked us to keep the mess to a minimum.

The mosque is looking for people to fill spots on its board of trustees. If you know anyone in the community, implore them to run. The departure of AR has left a void and it’s important to fill it with young Muslim leaders who will work towards keeping Belmont on the right track. This is one of the most diverse and welcoming communities in the Bay Area and the board of trustees of a mosque has a lot to do with fostering that environment. It’s my hope that they have a successful season of Belmont’s Next Top Religious Leader and they make the right choice for the community.

Folks hanging out after 8 rakat, while others inside pray to complete 20

Date Visited: August 5, 2011

Location:
621 Masonic Way
Belmont, CA 94002

Tag-team taraweeh: Yes

Qirat: Great

Size of congregation: ~100

Capacity of center: ~100

Parking: Street, some off-street

Mihrab: Yes

Minbar: Yes

Shoe shelves: Yes, but not more than last year

Building: A tiny building tucked into a corner of Belmont that’s a mix of residential and commercial properties

Friendliness towards women: High

Friendliness of congregation: High

Yaseen Foundation

Date visited: August 14, 2010

Location: Belmont, CA
621 Masonic Way
Belmont, CA 94002

Number of imams: 2

Qirat: I liked Imam Abdurrahman's recitation.  He's more meticulous than his brothers IT and II.  Too bad he did only four rakats because the other guy's not that great.  A Yaseen Foundation insider tells me that Imam A has been lazy this year or else he'd be doing more rakats :D

Size of congregation: 300-400

Capacity of center: Too small. I don't know if they can afford it, but they need to find a bigger building pronto.

Parking: Not enough. I showed up a half-hour before prayers so I was parked right next to the main entrance, but I imagine most of the congregation had to find street parking in a mostly residential neighborhood, no easy task.

Mihrab: Yep

Minbar: Yep

Shoe shelves: Yep

Building: A tiny building. Really small for the community; the president said that they're expecting 2,000 people for their Eid prayers.

Friendliness towards women: They used the same entrance as the men, but were forced into a room with a door, thus ensuring we would neither hear them nor see them :D

Friendliness of congregation: Very. I mean, it was incredible how many strangers were coming up to me to say hi.

Please tell me if there's any categories on which you'd like me to report.

The people up here are so friendly it's ridiculous. I started my evening with an iftar at the mosque, which up to this point I'd been avoiding because I lived so close to the mosques I'd been visiting I could eat at home. However, when I started this project, I realized if a mosque is more than 20 miles away, I should definitely eat at or near the mosque. Here's why: these days, sunset's hovering around 8 PM. They start Isha at 9:30. They could start Isha later to give people more time to eat, but I think people would much rather get home earlier to get enough sleep for the next day than get a few more minutes to eat.

Anyways, during the iftar, random people were saying hello to me, asking how I was doing. I had come with a friend because I didn't want to be the loner eating by himself, but I quickly realized even if I had come by myself I would have had company during my meal, no problem. It's something that's disappeared from MCA as the community has gotten larger, which is to be expected. Small-town America is purported to be a much nicer place to live than Big-city America for the exact same reason.

Since my friend and I were strangers, we got to the masjid super-early because we had nowhere else to go. My ex-roommate, who frequents this mosque, was nowhere to be found so we chilled in the parking lot till 9:30. One thing that struck me about this community was the balance of Arabs and Desis; it took me back to MCA. Unfortunately, most mosques in the Bay Area are built along ethnic lines so it was refreshing to see this diverse community.

I liked the mosque building, it reminded me a lot of Masjid An-Noor, MCA's first mosque. However, just like Masjid An-Noor, I know it would fail to meet the capacity requirements for this growing community. I'm not sure what this foundation has planned, but I hope for their sake they find a bigger building because trust me, it's not fun to pray in a sardine can. Way back before MCA bought its center Masjid An-Noor was so crowded people used to have to pray on each other backs due to a lack of space.

I liked the imam, and not just because he's the third Anwar brother. Seems like a nice, friendly guy, always smiling and shaking hands. I think in this day and age it's become even more important to have a friendly, charismatic person leading your mosque. He did break my heart, though, because after leading four rakats he tagged himself out. I personally like his recitation the best out of all the Anwar brothers so I was disappointed to have to listen to a mediocre recitation for the rest of Taraweeh.

I did like the fact that they do witr the Maliki way here. I can tell it always throws people off because it's such an uncommon way to do it in the Bay.

I was tickled by the fact that the women's section has a solid door, thus ensuring they will be neither seen nor heard. It is literally impossible for any man to even peek inside that section. They, however, have a clear view of us thanks to one-way mirrors.