BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Muslims are required to pray five times a day, and do so in mosques. But after the spread of COVID-19, mosques, churches and temples had to close.
However, Governor Cuomo announced of over the weekend that houses of worship may resume public gatherings at 25 percent capacity.
Urooq Gaskin spoke with us as he sat on the steps of Masjid Darus-Salaam in Buffalo. He's this mosque's muezzin, or the man who calls muslims to prayer five times a day.
He said he's happy to get back to prayer and worship.
"That was the first thing that came to my mind and all the other participants here at Darus-Salaam...that we can get back to the 'Ibadah' which means 'Worship' to our lord," said Gaskin.
Gaskin showed us inside the mosque, which was empty since it was not yet prayer time.
Although worshipers pray several times a day here, the largest gathering is on Friday, or Jumaah in Arabic.
"Jummah will be coming up this Friday and we anticipate to have - our normal crowd is about 40 to 50 people. So whatever the law allows us to have, we'll regulate it according to that," said Gaksin.
Gaskin said the mosque has masks and hand sanitizer, and they do a thorough cleaning of the carpet they pray on twice a day.
We asked him why it's important that people gather in a mosque to pray instead of praying at home.
"The reason for the gathering of the prayer is because there's more strength and there's more blessings going up to our creator for the more people that pray together," he said.
