The mosque is a built facility with certain unique characteristics for Muslim prayer, as well as an institution dedicated to maintaining community life. As a building its primary and minimal role is to accommodate a congregation that performs its ritual prayers in formation while oriented toward Kaʿbah in Mecca. As an institution it marks the sociocultural existence of a Muslim community, acting both as its center and its emblem.

Etymology

The original Arabic word for mosque is masjid (plural, masājid), meaning a place of sujūd, the highly symbolic act of prostration (before God) during ṣalāt (ritual prayer), when the whole body reaches its lowest position and the forehead is placed on the earth in a prescribed manner. Since ṣalāt is universally performed in Arabic, its constituent stages, including sujūd, and its place, masjid, have maintained their Arabic form...