Two hours. Your imam, your committee, your programme, your rules. There is no fee, no application process and no obligation beyond opening the doors. This page is everything a mosque needs to host a National Mosque Open Day.

What We Ask of Every Host Mosque

These conditions are not administrative housekeeping. They are the terms on which mosque committees and ulama have supported this campaign since 2017, and they are what keep it within the Shari’ah. If your mosque cannot meet them, it should not host — and nobody will think the worse of it.

1. The committee decides and the imam is satisfied. No mosque is pressed to take part.
2. The purpose is ta’reef and da’wah — making Islam known — not entertainment.
3. Visitors are received in modest dress. Keep clean scarves at the door for women who need them.
4. Visitors are guided and supervised throughout. Nobody wanders unaccompanied.
5. Men and women are received according to the arrangements your mosque ordinarily makes.
6. The programme is timed around the congregational salaah, never through it.
7. No act of non-Islamic worship takes place inside the mosque, and no visitor is invited to join the salaah.
8. Photography is at your discretion and by your rules. Say so at the door.
9. The sanctity of the mosque is explained warmly at the door, not policed after the fact.

The Shari’ah basis for all of this, with the sources, is set out in Welcoming Visitors to the Masjid — Questions and Answers. It is worth reading before your committee meets, and worth having to hand for anyone who raises the question.

Two Weeks Before

• Committee resolution taken; imam briefed.
• Two or three guides identified and briefed.
• Poster printed and displayed; announcement made at jumu’ah.
• Invite people by name — the immediate neighbours, the nearest school, the ward councillor, the nearest church, temple and synagogue, the local police station, the ratepayers’ association. A personal invitation to a principal or a pastor is worth more than any poster.
• Send your local newspaper and community radio station the advisory now, not later. In 2020 this campaign missed every community-paper deadline because marketing started three days out. Copy needs about fourteen days.
• Decide your photography rule and who speaks to media.
• Check your municipality’s by-laws before putting up a banner or street-pole ads.

What worked, in the mosque’s own words: the best-attended venue in 2019 credited its turnout to “about 35 street pole ads and posters, 1,200 pamphlets delivered door to door, and a community newspaper article” three weeks ahead.

The Day Before

• Mosque cleaned thoroughly — and the bathrooms immaculate. First impressions carry most of the day.
• Notice boards cleared of old notices; bookshelves tidied.
• Shoe racks out, shelves cleared.
• Spare scarves at the entrance, clean and folded.
• Refreshments arranged.
• Literature laid out — plain, in English, and not too much of it.
• Wudhu area clean and accessible for the demonstration.
• Signage: entrance, shoes, wudhu area, refreshments.
• Attendance register and evaluation forms printed, and someone whose job is to count.

The Two Hours

That last line matters more than it looks. The measured evidence on mosque visits is that they shift attitudes in the short term and that the effect fades over months. One afternoon a year is a door, not a destination — so end by opening the rest of the year.

Briefing Your Guides

A guide is not a scholar and not a debater. A guide is an ordinary Muslim a stranger can ask anything. Three rules cover almost everything:

1. “I don’t know, let me find out” is a good answer. Guessing is not. Have the imam’s number.
2. Answer the question that was asked — not the one you wish had been asked, and not at five times the length.
3. Your job is hospitality, not persuasion. The visit succeeds if someone leaves having been treated well and having had a straight answer. That is the whole of it.

What to cover on the walk: the mihrab and why it faces where it faces; the minbar; why there are no images or statues; why the floor is open and there are no seats; the arrangements for women; where wudhu is done and why; the minaret and the athaan; and anything particular to your building’s history — which is usually what visitors remember longest.

Questions Your Guides May Likely Be Asked

Prepare for these rather than for theology. Blunt questions are a good sign — they mean the person trusts you enough to ask. Suggested responses to the harder ones, with their sources, are being prepared and will be added to this page once they have been reviewed.

• What is halaal food, and who decides what is halaal?
• Why are Muslims and Muslim organisations so often involved in disaster relief, feeding schemes and charity?
• Why can a Muslim man have more than one wife?
• Why do women pray in a separate area?
• Why do Muslim women cover their hair? Is it a choice?
• What does the athaan say?
• Why five times a day? What happens if you miss one?
• Do Muslims have to pray in Arabic?
• What is Ramadaan actually like?
• Why no pork, and why no alcohol?
• Is Allah the same God as ours?
• What do Muslims believe about Jesus?
• What does the Qur’an say about violence? What about extremism?
• What is the difference between Sunni and Shia?
• What actually happens at jumu’ah on a Friday?
• Can non-Muslims come in any time, or only today?
• Who pays for the mosque?

If Someone Raises the Objection

Some visitors — and occasionally some Muslims — will have read that opening a mosque to visitors is not permitted. Do not argue on the doorstep. Say, briefly and without heat:

There’s a difference of opinion among the scholars, and our committee follows the Hanafi position, which permits it. There’s a full answer with the sources on the SAMNET site — I’d rather you read that than take my word for it.

Then point them to Welcoming Visitors to the Masjid — Questions and Answers and move on. That page exists precisely so nobody has to have this conversation at the door.

Afterwards — and This Is the Part Most Mosques Skip

Send us, within a week:

• How many people came. A real count, even a rough one.
• Two or three short visitor quotes, with first names and permission to publish.
• Three or four photographs you are happy to have published.
• The completed attendance register and evaluation forms.
• What you would do differently.

If you record a visitor’s voice or video, ask permission plainly and on the recording: “Thank you for agreeing to a recorded comment we can share with the organisers. May we use this on social media?” Consent given that way is consent we can rely on.

Nobody has ever collected this properly across the whole campaign. It is what makes the case for next year, and it is what a journalist, a funder or a researcher asks for first.

One More Thing Worth Knowing

In 2019 a mosque opened, advertised properly, and had no visitors at all. It happens. It is not a verdict on your mosque or on the campaign — and that mosque hosted again the following year.

Register or ask a question: info@samnet.co.za · +27 31 207 4223
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