100 Bond Street, Toronto, ON
100 Bond Street, Toronto, ON
The most central and the very first musallah in downtown, convenient location, but the women area is really small , at max only 4 women can fit in
Good location, now a barber shop opened next to it where a lot of young boys kick it. Sometimes a very strong smell of the other tobacco (wink) is present during salah if udh is not burnt or if the windows are open. The regulars are very friendly and nice brothers. If your downtown and need to pray drop by.
Downtown Mosque is actually a masallah, and not a mosque proper. It is like many restaurants one comes across where the proprietor has redone the basement into a masallah to allow people a place to pray. In this case, the owner of the clothing store on the ground floor has dedicated the entire 2nd floor to the cause of Islam. It has limited bathroom facilities, but boasts a packed ouse Juma'a khutbah every week and is basically 2 min. walk from Ryerson Univ. A group of dedicated poor and working class regulars ensure that 5-times daily prayer is held day-in day-out.
I consider this mosque simply a convenient (because of its central location) place for brothers to pray. I did not even see the main (men's) prayer space so I cannot comment on it. But the building was clearly not built as a mosque and is of very basic construction. The women's area such as it is is a very very small room - the size of some closets - though to be fair , its furnishings seem to suggest that it is normally some kind of classroom. The women's area was extremely uncomfortable. There were several of us jammed into a very small space that is not usually used for prayer and that was unbearably hot (it was not summer). It took a while to extract from the brothers where the women's space was and I was nearly knocked down by them both on the way into the tiny room and on the way out (since the room opens onto the only stairwell). There would be problems if there were a fire. The women could definitely not see the khateeb or imam and not hear well either. If I had had a small child with me, things would have been even more difficult as there was no room for a child to move about. In short, as a woman, I would never attend this mosque again. It would be adequate for a brother who works in that area and just needs to get his salat/jumah done.