Category:Rakat Mosque

Rakat Mosque — a mosque located in the Yakkasaroy district of Tashkent city. The old building of the mosque was in front of the orchard trees in front of the current Pedagogical University named after Nizami.

History

Brief information about the mosque's history: Mirjalil ota, a resident of the “Rakat” neighborhood, allocated eight sotiks of land from his own gardens and endowed this place for the construction of a mosque.

The "Rakat Jome' Mosque" in the Yakkasaroy district of Tashkent city has a distinctive interesting history. Many residents living in the Beshyog‘och quarter, one of the four quarters of old Tashkent, owned rural yards in the southwestern outskirts of the city and for almost nine months of the year moved with their families from the city yard to these places to engage in farming and gardening. Later, the population increased in these locations, new neighborhoods began to appear, and, in order not to travel far for communal prayers (Friday, funeral, Eid prayers), according to the wishes of the majority of the population, during the rule of the Tsarist Russia in 1910, it was decided, using endowment funds, to build a mosque on the banks of the Rakat stream flowing from the Governor's garden (later named Kirov Garden, Babur Garden and now Friendship Garden), and it was named "Rakat Jome' Mosque".

The construction of the mosque building was carried out by craftsmen, led by Asli Qoratoshlik, a prominent religious scholar of his time, and later by Muhammad Yusuf Muhammadyor, the disciple of Shaykh Eshon Boboxon ibn Abdulmajidjon Qori who lived in the Gubrbog neighborhood, who also served as the first chief imam and khatib of the "Rakat Jome' Mosque".

As a result of the 1917 uprisings, after the overthrow of the Tsarist Regime and the Provisional Government, the Bolshevik government separated religion from the state and began an indiscriminate struggle against it. Under communist policy many churches and mosques were destroyed, and some were used as warehouses, printing houses, artels and other purposes. In particular, in the years 1935-1940, with the establishment of the Tashkent State Pedagogical Institute, the activity of the Rakat Mosque was halted on the atheistic pretext that “the presence of a religious organization under a higher education institution training Soviet teachers is undesirable.” By this period, the “Rakat Jome’ Mosque” had become one of the most prestigious mosques in Tashkent, occupying a place among the top four of the most prominent mosques.

In 1943, when World War II reached its peak, the Allied powers raised the issue of opening a Second Front against fascism, and one of its main demands was to allow religious freedom in the USSR. In the autumn of that year, by decision of the Soviet government, the Central Asian and Kazakh Muslim Religious Administration was established in Tashkent, and the mufti Eshon Boboxon was appointed as its head. Because of his and his son Shaykh Ziyovuddin Qori ibn Eshon Boboxon's steadfastness in Islam (may God have mercy on them), dedication to the people, vigor and efforts, permission was obtained from Moscow for the operation of a number of mosques in Uzbekistan. According to the official record, in Tashkent the mosques Tillashaykh, Mog‘ulko‘cha, Allon, Chig‘atoy‑Chaqar, Mahkama, Shaykh Zayniddin, Qizil Tovush, Sarichopon, Khoja Alambardor, Novza, Yakkasaroy, Rakat, Qiyot, Mirza Yusuf, Otchopar, Olmazor and Orqako‘cha were reopened in 1944‑1946. By 1950 the former building of the “Rakat Jome’ Mosque” opposite the Tashkent Pedagogical Institute (now the Alisher Navoi named Uzbekistan State University of Uzbek Language and Literature) had been demolished, and the government of that atheistic period could not resolve the issue of allocating land for a new mosque building. Then, one of our devoted compatriots with strong religious faith, Mirjalil Ota, a resident of the Rakat neighborhood (may God have mercy on him), endowed six sotiks of his garden for the construction of the mosque. In this period, the imam‑khateeb of the Rakat Mosque, Muhammad Yusuf, a scholar, had lost his two sons who were martyrs in the war and had become ill (they died in December 1952 from a serious illness, may God have mercy on them), and the friends of Muhammad Yusuf who had come from Andijan, Nizomiddin Qazi‑scholar and Mulla Salim’s son, served as chief imam‑khateeb of the Rakat Mosque.

Nizomiddin domla's life paths are very interesting and exemplary. He studied religious education at the Bukhara madrasa in the early 20th century, and at the same time mastered Arabic, Persian and Russian perfectly. In the 1920s, in the city of Andijan, he simultaneously worked as a qazi and as a teacher at the Jome' mosque, which earned him the nickname "qazi-domla" among the people. The Shurobol government, a strong scholar, put Nizomiddin qazi-domla under persecution as a religious propagandist, and at the end of the 1930s he was arrested by the NKVD on false charges and sentenced to death. The most interesting thing is that the prison chief, who was of Russian nationality, listened to the advice of the prisoners who knew "qazi-domla", and, trusting the Muslim belief about the fate of his only son who was suffering from a severe incurable disease, taught and cared for Nizomiddin domla. By the power of God, the boy then recovered, and out of gratitude the prison chief, taking all responsibility upon himself, found a way and saved Nizomiddin's wife from unjust suffering and released her. In 1950 Nizomiddin's wife moved with her family to Tashkent, settled in the Gubrbog neighborhood and became the imam of the "Rakat Jome' Mosque".