I got this in an email. I don't know how many of you go to Tyson's Corner (mall), but someone has kindly arranged an area for Muslim shoppers to pray at the mall. The info is below.
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AoA, I wanted to pass on some important information to our community. As we all share the common concerns with performing our daily prayers while away from home, it is very important that we have musallas in different areas for us to be able to offer our prayers while nearby.
I have contacted the Tysons Corner management and spoke to the general manager Corie who has been very nice in offering us a place to pray in Tysons mall. I strongly recommend that we make great use of this opportunity so that the management understands and hopefully will upgrade us to a better location within the mall.
I have originally asked the mall management to allot us a designated room, however currently they don't see it fit as the demand is not really there. I have conveyed to them that thousands of muslims that visit the mall leave the mall at prayer times just to perform their prayer which takes 5-10 minutes. This actually is loss of revenue for the Mall as we cut short our shopping lists and delay our purchases. Corie has been a great help in providing us this place so that we can make use of it. I strongly recommend that we heavily utilize this opportunity while visiting the Tysons Mall, and hopefully this will be the starting point to copy this arrangement to other mall locations.
Please pass this email to whoever you deem necessary and think will benefit from it.
PRAYER AREA IN TYSONS' MALL:
As you enter the mall area coming out from Nordstrom on the main level there is an alley to your right hand side that has signs for "Security, Elevators and Restrooms". Go into that alley and down all the way till you see the Elevators on your right hand side. (You'll pass the Restrooms on your right and security office on your left.) Directly across from the Elevators is an area underneath the stairs behind the glass wall where there is ample room to pray even with a small congregation. Currently there you will see some extra furniture and other small items laying around, please ignore that. You will probably need the prayer rug or something to put there for prostration. Currently there is marble flooring and no carpet in this area.
(You may also ask the information desk as to the location of the prayer area and/or security office and they'll provide you directions to it)
Please be considerate and not leave any trash and any other items behind which cause any problems for the cleaning crew of the mall.
Qibla Direction:
If you are behind the glass wall area and facing the Elevators. Turn to your right about 30 degrees and that is the location of the Qibla.
Qibla Locator
WUDU INSTRUCTIONS (prohibited acts):
There are restrooms close by the prayer area. It is very important that we DO NOT WASH OUR FEET in the sinks there. We must make Masah. Regardless of the weather (winter/summer), we must abstain from putting our feet in the sink as this is a public mall restroom and federal health regulations prohibits this act of placing feet in the sinks for any reason. We don't want to loose this place due to our non-conformance with Federal and Mall regulations.
Some people may not understand these restrictions, in which case it becomes incumbent upon us to remind them politely if we see them violating these rules in the restroom area. It is our duty to remind the person that due to his/her actions in violating this rule, all local Muslims may suffer at his/her hands by losing the place of prayer in Tysons Mall.
It is natural to have some water spill on the sink counter while washing our arms, hence it is very important that once you wipe your face and hands with the paper-towels, please use it to clean/wipe the area around the sink. It is better to grab a few paper towels ahead of time and keep them with you while making wudu, because once you leave the sink to go get paper-towel, someone else might take your place and have a very bad impression of you. This is a courteous act in which others looking at the Muslims making wudu will have respect for our action. Please repeat this action after each person makes wudu, even if you have someone behind you who will be using the sink for the same purpose. So, the cleanest sink in that restroom should be the one you have just made wudu in because you have just wiped it down. Cleanliness is half of Iman, and all this should become second nature to us. I would also go the extra mile of wiping down someone else's place of wudu next to us in case they forgot or didn't pay attention to it.
This is the best form of dawa that we can have where we do it quietly demonstrating our best manners. It will only make people think twice with what they hear on the media and maybe open up a Quran just because they saw you making proper clean wudu and offering prayer in humbleness.
May Allah bless the Muslims wherever they may be.
Re: The DC/VA/MD Area Thread
*half marathon* ~ November 15th, 2008 
