Interesting topic and suggestions.

In my opinion, finances and paid-caretakers are not the way to go. Although they may expedite the resolution of the problem in the short term — for it is not the sunnah of the prophet s.a.w.

The solution, for this and many other ills, lies (imho) in encouraging the ummah with targheeb of the virtues of cleaning the masaajid – “those who clean the masjid of allah s.w.t., allah will clean their hearts,” the rewards of picking up just one piece of “garbage”, the status of the khadim of the masjid on the day of qiyamat, etc… If only we truly “knew” (and realized) the rewards of the acts that allah s.w.t. has proscribed for us – for our own benefit – I doubt there would be any who would forego such a great service.

I am sure the ulema in the local masajid would know a lot more about the promises of allah s.w.t. and his prophet s.a.w. on the rewards for those who help keep the house of allah s.w.t. clean and presentable – I am not an ‘alim. They, would – I should think – be more than happy to devote one fridays khutba to it’s benefits and virtues.

Was salaam,
Taalib duaa.

Muslims tend to hear but allow it to go in through one ear and out the other.

We are a sad Ummah.

To tell the truth, I was pretty surprised to see the responses! From this I’ve concluded that larger masaajid, which cater to larger Muslim populations, are the cleanest because they can afford to pay caretakers; whereas smaller masaajid (like the one in my old city *and* my new one) which depend upon volunteers tend to be a little, erm, messier. This is, of course, just a generalization…

iMuslim: LOL @ olfactory jihad! :D

Abu h: Heehee, at my old Islamic centre it was always the women who made the biggest mess, but who also cleaned up the best! We definitely enjoyed pointing that out to the men, who always moaned and groaned about the slightest things… :D
Eurgh, I agree – bathrooms are generally the worst place in the masaajid! My father and I both have low tolerance for dirty bathrooms, so either we’d clean the place up first, or go somewhere else altogether! Now that we have our own place for the madrasah, though, we’re quite strict about the bathrooms… before every class, it’s thoroughly cleaned – toilet bowl, toilet seat, and Lysol on all surfaces! Man, the cleaning supply companies are probably making a killing out of us…
But guess who has to do all the cleaning?! Yup, yours truly! :P

Aidan Qassim: Hmmmm, interesting point! Maybe it goes back to being able to afford a caretaker… in both my old and new city, the masjid is pretty small, and the people who attend are generally poorer immigrants, and volunteers are required for pretty much everything.

Umm Layth: Yes, from what I’ve find out, it’s an older sister who undertakes the enormous task of cleaning out the women’s musallah area here as well… and it’s extremely sad to see people complain about the state of the area (before and after cleaning), when they don’t bother to do anything about it themselves. Awwwww, masha’Allah about your son! At least *he* knows what’s right and what’s not…

Ruth Nasrullah: That’s a good point about managing finances, although I think that would apply more to the larger masaajid…

Moiez: Al-Hamdulillaah! :) I know from experience that even just ONE person doing something small to help out with the cleaning actually makes a pretty big difference!

BintMuhammad: One of the things that annoy me the most is when you ask someone to help you clean up, maybe by picking up even just ONE candy wrapper or something small like that, and they give you this look and go, “That’s not mine!” Then they turn their back on you before you can explain that it doesn’t matter whose mess it is, it affects all of us.

D’you think it might help if someone asked the imam of the masjid to mention this issue to the congregation at some time? I think it’s a good idea, but not sure how effective it’d be because I’ve seen waaaaay too many times how someone will tell the people something, and the people all nod and go, “Yes, that’s a good point, etc.” but then never follow it up with actions!

It drives me nuts when people think that cleaning after themselves is the hardest thing they ever had to do. Another thing is when mothers bring their children to the masjid and dont look after them and dont care what havoc and mess their children create. They think that there is some imaginary care taker who will clean it.

For the person who mentioned churches are cleaner, I would agree with you. Churches are cleaner because their usually only full one day of the week and if their is mess created on that day the well paid janitor cleans it. Plus churches dont ask anyone to take off their shoes, i think thats where the havoc usually starts. When was the last time wudu was made at a church, one of the reasons why washrooms are soo dirty, no one knows how to make proper wudhu.

Neways thats my two cents
wasalamualaykum

In some masajid the greater issue is money management. If the books aren’t being kept properly and responsibly and if there isn’t accountability for money coming in and how it’s spent there won’t be money to pay a caretaker’s salary. If physical improvements are made with no plan for maintaining them the place will fall apart eventually anyway.

I have recently been going to my masjid far less because of the chaos that reigns there. Ironically, if I want to go to a house of worship that’s clean and quiet, where you can leave food out without fear of people taking it for themselves, where the kids aren’t running and screaming and damaging things, and where the women really participate in how the masjid is run I’d have to go to a church.

Paid/Hired Caretaker = Clean Masjid

Do-it-yourself-depend-on-us = Dirty Masjid

I bet though that those who have paid caretakers (esp. if they are old Masajids) used to depend on us Muslims before they recognized that it wasn’t happening, so they hired help; probably a good move.

So, really, what does that say about us? What does that say about our attachment to the Masjid? I am asking everyone, including myself, to think about this sincerely. If anything, this post picks up on the desired connection with the Masjid, so perhaps next time, when the Masjid admin or even the paid caretaker asks for a hand, we will run forward with not one, but both hands.