The community and welfare centre is a thriving meeting place for recreational activities, sports and social events.
A child’s scooter parked by the staircase. A sparkly lipgloss lying on the windowsill. Winter coats of all shapes and sizes hung wherever they can be hung. There are traces of people and everyday life all around the Dar Ul-Isra mosque in Cathays.
For many Muslims in Cardiff, Dar Ul-Isra is more than just a place of worship, it is a place where you come to find community and a sense of belonging. Nestled on a quiet street, you might easily walk past the unassuming building without much thought. Inside though, there’s a buzzing energy as people from all walks of life come and go.
There’s a reason why Dr Hasan, a senior management volunteer, sees the mosque as more than some rigid, sacrosanct entity. It’s a thriving community and welfare centre, and that’s how it was meant to be from the beginning.
“It was started in the 1980s,” he said. “Back when there were no mosques in the north side of Cardiff city. At the time, a few local students and businessmen came together to buy this building when it came on sale. They sought to make it a community centre that welcomes everyone.”
Many acts of worship in Islam are communal, and Dar Ul- Isra serves as a meeting place for everyone to gather and perform them, but the mosque’s efforts go beyond the spiritual and towards the everyday as well.
“We have a scout group here. It helps keep children away from the streets and makes them feel useful in society through activities they enjoy,” Dr Hasan said. “We have sports clubs like football and cycling, wrestling and martial arts classes for men and women. There are coffee meet-ups for women, as well as different halaqahs or study sessions in various languages like Farsi, Arabic and Urdu.”
Why come to Dar Ul-Isra, though? What’s the lure in joining a mosque’s martial arts team when plenty of other places in Cardiff offer you the same chance? One young visitor at the mosque had something to say about this.
“We come here because you get to do all this with someone who looks like you, or maybe dresses like you, or sounds like you,” she said. “Or maybe they are very different, but still, we choose to find common ground through our faith. It makes you feel a little less alone.”