Singapore mosques open up further

As of October 2020, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) is able to offer 15,225 spaces every week for Friday prayers at 64 mosques. This increase in capacity will eventually reach 30,000 slots every Friday. This will enable congregants to generally book a slot for Friday prayer every four to five weeks.

To achieve this, some mosques will pilot accommodating up to 250 congregants across five zones.

Muis will also increase the slots available for daily congregational prayers from 50 to 100 worshippers at selected mosques, to meet the demand from congregants at these mosques. Nineteen mosques will begin offering the additional 50 spaces from 7 October 2020.

From 16 October, the Friday prayer timings will also be adjusted earlier as the time for dhuhr is moving earlier. The new timings are as follows:

- 12:45pm to 1:15pm

- 1:45pm to 2:15pm

- 2:45pm to 3:15pm

The online booking system, designed  to prioritise those who have not secured a slot in recent weeks, also prevents people who have booked recently to make another booking within a specific blackout period. In recent weeks, this period has been progressively shortened as more spaces have been made available*. To date, about 85,000 congregants have attended Friday prayers since its resumption.

When mosques first reopened, Muis advised congregants aged 60 and above to refrain from visiting the mosque. Seniors who wish to do so may return to the mosques for religious activities, but are advised to adhere to the necessary safe management measures. Seniors who are feeling unwell, vulnerable individuals (those exhibiting symptoms of acute respiratory infection as well as pre-existing chronic medical conditions) as well as children below the age of 12 are strongly encouraged to refrain from going to the mosque, and to perform their prayers at home instead.

Muis emphasises that there is still a need for all safe distancing procedures, contact tracing, and the use of an online booking system to manage repeat bookings. The organisation continues to encourage use of the Trace Together app.

With the easing of guidelines by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), mosques will progressively resume other religious activities:

Part-time aLIVE madrasah classes will restart progressively, with some mosques piloting face-to-face classes from mid-October. Muis targets more on-site aLIVE classes at mosques to resume in 2021.

In-person marriage solemnisation at mosques have been allowed since 13 June 2020 while janazah prayer services have resumed as of 14 September 2020.

Face-to-face marriage counselling sessions for BersamaMu programmes and social development services have been also been allowed to resume gradually.

Mosques will organise limited hybrid live-online Maulid (Prophet’s Birthday) celebrations.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Office of the Mufti has been providing the appropriate religious guidance to ensure the community can continue to practise and fulfil religious obligations in a safe manner.

Despite the increase in prayer spaces, the original rukhsah**, as advised by the Office of the Mufti in its fatwa, will still be in place. Those who are unable to attain a slot for Friday prayers are given the flexibility to replace Friday prayer with the dhuhr prayer and are encouraged to tune to SalamSG TV and other online platforms to listen to the Friday sermon.

In March 2020, Muis closed all mosques in order to prevent transmission of COVID-19, and mosques remained closed during the Circuit Breaker (lockdown) period. Post-Circuit Breaker, from the provision of small prayer spaces for essential service workers, mosques have developed and successfully implemented safe management measures, allowing for the gradual and safe reopening of mosques and resumption of congregational prayers.

Since June 2020, daily and Friday congregational prayers have progressively resumed in mosques, with safe distancing, shortened sessions, enhanced cleaning regimens, separate entrances and exits as well as contact tracing in place. Although there were a few cases of asymptomatic COVID-19 positive individuals visiting mosques, no virus transmissions have been detected.

This has allowed Muis to progressively increase the number of spaces available, in line with the guidelines for religious activities provided by the MCCY. The Fatwa Committee also issued an advisory to the community that a religious concession was allowed for congregants who, due to space limitations, were unable to perform their obligatory Friday prayers in mosques, and to substitute this with prayer at home or at work***.

*When the system was first introduced in June 2020, a person could only make a subsequent booking after seven weeks.

**Flexibility, permissibility, an exception to a general law, granted to preserve life or remove hardship.

***Fatwa issued by Office of the Mufti providing guidance on the religious justifications in view of the congregational worship with limited prayer spaces, dated 24 March 2020.