The call to prayer
Earlier in this year, as part of our fortieth wedding anniversary celebration, my wife Kathy and I took a short holiday in Southern Spain. At the time it was a change to have some warm weather. We visited various interesting places including Granada. Southern Spain was influenced by the Moors and their architecture is beautiful. We also spent a couple of days in Seville with its Cathedral and the beautiful tower (Giralda), so much influenced by Islamic design. The bells could be seen clearly and when they started to ring Kathy pointed out to me they were ringing full circle. Later in the day when we visited the Cathedral it meant we had to ascend the tower. This was interesting in itself. We did not go up by stairs but by a series of wide ramps. These dated back to when the cathedral was a mosque. As many will know the call to prayer for Muslims happens five times a day. This is often done by recordings these days but certainly not centuries ago, then a person had to climb the minaret and call. There are thirty-five ramps in the tower at Seville constructed so the Muezzin who was calling the people to prayer to could ride on a donkey up and down the tower.
After we ascended the tower we could see that on some of the bells there are chains (similar to bicycle chains) around the wheels and a mechanism which swung the bells whilst going full circle, presumably in the same direction. This is how it appeared although I stand to be corrected.
This tower has served to call people to prayer for both Muslims and Christians for hundreds of years. We worship the same God. The call from this minaret/tower, whether Muslim or Christian, is to the same God. Thankfully there are people from all religions who work together for peace as the Faith Forum does in Cornwall. As we work and pray for peace we remember the words of the prophet Micah ‘What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?’
Malcolm Bowers