By Cathy Hird

The haunting chant of the call to prayer opens the silence of dawn in the cold clear air of Lenasia, an Indian township near Johannesburg, South Africa. The melodic chant summons the whole community to the day, even if those who do not yet need to rise roll over in bed. The community has churches and temples as well, but the call to prayer is broadcast to all and shapes the atmosphere of the community.

In Istanbul where there are many mosques, the chant begins in the east of the city, and then as dawn moves westward, each mosque in turn broadcasts the summons to begin the day with prayer. The call is given five times during the day, but later, as the city gets busy, it competes with the noise of cars and trucks, buses and voices. At dawn, the call is clear.

Visiting a new city, it is easy to pick out the mosques because of the minaret, the tower from which the call to prayer is broadcast. Where churches will have a cross or steeple and larger Hindu temples will have a flag staff, a mosque will have at least one tower from which to summon the community to prayer.

Sometimes, the rest of the building is built like a school or an office, square and functional. There will be a prayer hall inside with some kind of carpet so that people can kneel and prostrate as they pray. There will be offices and rooms for teaching because learning Arabic and learning about the Koran are important pillars of Moslem practice. And, somewhere near the entrance there will be ablution fountains because before prayer comes cleansing.

In Istanbul, the standard shape of the main building is a domed structure. All across the city small mosques are shaped like the famous church at the centre of the city, the huge domed structure built in 537CE, the Haggia Sophia.

This ancient church built at height of the Byzantine empire was the largest cathedral for almost a thousand years. Its dome was considered impossible when imagined by Emperor Justinian, and so was seen as a miracle of construction by the ancient world. Given the prominence of the structure, it is not surprising that when the Ottoman empire conquered Istanbul, this magnificent building was converted to a mosque. The mosaics of Jesus and the saints were plastered over, and four minarets and the ablution fountains were added. And this dome became the model for mosques across the city, a reminder that even when deeply divided, different religious patterns influence each other.

When the republic of Turkey was formed, there was a debate about what to do with this building: should it remain a mosque or should it revert to its original purpose and become a church again? In the end, because Turkey is a secular state even though the majority of its population are Moslems, the building became a museum. A visitor can now see the Islamic-style decorations and the uncovered frescoes. The building is a testimony to the possibility of compromise.

To switch back to the continent of Africa for a moment, we were in Burkina Faso during the fast of Ramadan. For this month, a Moslem will not eat between dawn and dusk. They rise early for breakfast, and then gather after dark for a good evening meal. In many communities, there is a particular food that is taken to break the fast, and at the end of the month, there is a holiday and a feast. But one of the notable things for us was that as dusk arrived, many people stopped right where they were to offer the evening prayers. On the side walk, they did not kneel, but they gathered in small groups, faced as close to north-east and Mecca as they could and prayed.

I do not have a deep understanding of Islam, but I have seen the depth of piety and admire the beauty of the cultures that have grown up around this religious practice. And in Turkey, so much in the news these days, I saw a model of compromise. There is extremism in Islam as there is in Christianity and other religions, but there is much more to be discovered and admired as well. And always the call to prayer reaches deeply into my spirit.

Cathy Hird is a farmer, minister and writer living near Walters Falls.