Mosque and Multimedia

It was Friday and it was my first time performing Friday prayer at Masjid Wilayah Persekutuan Jalan Duta.

I was surprised when I entered the main prayer hall. They have 2 screens on both sides. Its a Powerpoint slideshows about that particular khutbah or sermon. But not the whole text, they just pointed out the Quranic verses, hadith, quotations and many more. But don't expect to see any pictures or videos. What important in the slideshow is the content itself.

By the way, I remembered when I was in mosque in UPM Serdang to perform Friday prayer . They also have the big screen to aid the sermon.

I've read Utusan Malaysia Mega pullout and I found out about the introduction of using multimedia in Friday sermon. Here's a bit of the article.

Masjid di Wilayah Persekutuan perkenal khutbah multimedia

... Menurut Zakaria, dengan kecanggihan yang sedia ada jemaah akan menyaksikan intisari khutbah yang dipancarkan pada layar.

Jemaah bukan sahaja dapat mendengar khutbah malah dapat melihat kandungan khutbah yang dipaparkan. Dengan itu, para jemaah lebih mudah memahami dan lebih selesa menghayati khutbah yang disampaikan.

I wonder when UIA will imply the multimedia screen to aid the Friday sermon.. What's wrong with UIA that I hate the Friday sermon so much? First of all, it was in Arabic language. My lecturer, Spahic Omer, said that the sermon is pointless if only 10 percent of the people understand Arabic. Not all UIA students can understand and converse in Arabic well especially the locals.

Usually I will concentrate to the sermon if it was in English or Malay. Otherwise, I will fall asleep until the praying session. The point here is that, in UIA, they should deliver the sermon in English or Malay. Otherwise if they wanted to imply the multimedia, put the main content or the English translation on it.

By the way, I think that in UPM and in WP mosque, they should use English language so that other can understand.