Mosque; Communication and Sustained Development

The various functions of mosque are: devotional, educational, communicative, social, cultural, architectural, artistic, etc. The communicative and cultural functions, of mosque have manifested themselves in two general sorms as evidenced by both religious texts and Moslms, historical experience: culture- making and transmission of information. These are serving a noble religious cause, i.e. individual and social exaltation. From a developmental point of view, Islam has considered the sustained development in close relation with two major elements: a comprehensive look at humans and their existential dimensions, and not restricting human life to this world. Religion, therefore, assumes the sustained development as a phenomenon that recognizes all human needs and paves the way for human exaltation in all domains on the one hand, and includes all phases of human life, i.e worldly and otherworldly, on the other, It seems that mosque could be taken as a suitably communicative environment for educating and culture- making in the field of a sustained and religious- oriented development and thus training competent citizens who could be directed to this end.