Mosque Maryam

Not to be confused with Maryam Mosque, a mosque in Romania.

Mosque Maryam
Mosque Maryam in February of 2009
Religion
Affiliation	Nation of Islam (formerly Greek Orthodox)
Leadership	Minister Louis Farrakhan
Location
Location	7351 S. Stony Island Avenue
Municipality	Chicago
State	Illinois
Geographic coordinates	41°45′39″N87°35′6.2″W / 41.76083°N 87.585056°W / 41.76083; -87.585056
Specifications
Dome(s)	1
Minaret(s)	0
Website
www.noi.org

Mosque Maryam, also known as Muhammad Mosque #2 or Temple #2, is the headquarters of the Nation of Islam, located in Chicago, Illinois. It is at 7351 South Stony Island Avenue in the South Shore neighborhood. ^[1] The building was originally the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church ^[a] before it relocated to suburban Palos Hills. Elijah Muhammad, Farrakhan's predecessor as head for NOI, purchased the building in 1972. Muhammad was lent $3 million from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to convert the former church. ^[3]

The main hall in the mosque is for meetings, since it was originally the church's nave that contained pews later replaced with seats, ^[4] Mosque Maryam has an area within the mosque with plenty of open floor space to spread prayer rugs on which to kneel to pray. They use that area every Friday for Jumuah prayer and for prayer (with prayer rugs in general). The NOI's Imam gives the prayers for Jumuah prayer.

Adjacent to the mosque is the Muhammad University of Islam, an educational institute for boys and girls from preschool through 12th grade.

History

Farrakhan named the building Mosque Maryam in 1988. ^[5] The Muhammad University of Islam was opened the same year. ^[6]

See also

• Chicago portal
• Illinois portal
• Islam portal

• List of mosques in the United States

Notes

1. At the time of its sale it was North America's largest Greek Orthodox church. ^[2]

References

1. "Mosque Maryam and The Nation of Islam National Center." Nation of Islam . Retrieved on February 26, 2009.
2. "eCUIP : The Digital Library : Social Studies : Chicago: City of Neighborhoods". ecuip.lib.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
3. David Lepeska (April 9, 2011). "Farrakhan Using Libyan Crisis to Bolster His Nation of Islam". The New York Times . Retrieved July 8, 2015.
4. Edward E. Curtis (2010). Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History. Infobase Publishing. p. 388. ISBN   978-1-4381-3040-8 . Retrieved 16 December 2012.
5. Gibson, Dawn-Marie (2016). The Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, and the Men Who Follow Him. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. p. 42. ISBN   978-1-137-53084-4.
6. Tinaz, Nuri (February 2001). Conversion of African Americans to Islam: A Sociological Analysis of the Nation of Islam And Associated Groups (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Warwick . Retrieved 2025-05-25.