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Assalammualaikum wr wb,
We're actually glad to know that some well-known spots in SG do have official Musollahs. For example, Thomson Medical Center has an official, and very comfortable, musollah complete with fan (if the aircon wasn't cozy enough), praying peripherals, seats and a separate room for both Muslims and Muslimahs. Tampines Mall's 2nd floor Musollah, though not as well equipped, is still comfortable with ample peripherals and offers a quiet respite to Allah from the hectic crowd.
And then, there are the unofficial ones - we were at Causeway Point Shopping Center and asked the guys in Alkaf Foreign Exchange (Level 5) of any official Musollahs available there. There wasn't but they kindly loaned me a sejadah, pointed me to the toilet and showed me the direction to pray in a recess area behind their shop. They've been serving the praying Muslim years earlier when they first started there. All you had to do is ask.
It's important to note that these Musollahs, both official and unofficial, exist mostly because our brothers and sisters (or rather, our elderly folks - usually our cleaning uncles and aunts - may Allah bless them) who happen to be working there needed a place to perform their prayers everyday. They could've just made it into a personal praying abode but instead made that special effort to make it known, comfortable and easy for the rest of us to perform our obligations as well.
For the rest of us who just started at a new workplace or place of study and currently thinking of setting up a Musollah, the Islamicevents.sg team has come up with an unofficial guide:
We think it's easy to pick out any spot to be designated as a Musollah so let's start with the "Don'ts" first. This is also easy, as we can only think of three:
Don'ts:
1. Don't create a musollah at places where people need to cross. You need to pray, they need to go somewhere - this should be obvious.
2. Don't vandalize or damage the ceiling, floor and wall. Don't stick anything permanent to these places either. Some musollahs where the arrow pointing to the qiblah was scrawled with permanent ink on the floor - it's just not right because it's public property and we don't own it. We recommend using pen/marker + paper + tape. Write what you need on paper and stick them to the floor/wall/ceiling with tape. Done!
3. Don't keep food, personal belongings not related to prayer or smelly/broken slippers in the musollah. Nothing says "This is not a musollah, this is a bachelor pad!" like these unwanted things. Case-in-point, We were privileged to have musollahs in our junior colleges but in some, it was taken away. Why? Things like these plus illegal cigarette smoke that's why. In essence, we'd like to emphasize that Muslims are by Nature and by Law, clean, neat, tidy and responsible - let's show others we are.
4. Don't store sejadahs, slippers or anything else in the firehouse-reel/emergency cabinet. This is actually an overlooked point but the Building manager and the SCDF takes this seriously. Your sejadahs and other peripherals can be considered a fire hazard and may hinder emergency operation should one occur. It's tempting to see so many empty spaces in that cabinet but we need to look ahead and understand what these officers are doing for the safety of others and ourselves. Comply!
With the Don'ts done, you can now carry on with that perfect quiet spot you had in mind. As an added bonus do consider these as well:
Do's
1. Do make it known that it's a Musollah. Put a notice, a sejadah, some nice slippers and a visible arrow on the floor indicating the qiblah - anything visibly Musollah-ic basically! A bonus if you can have a small note telling where the nearest wudhu point is, and a reminder to keep the place neat and clean.
2. Do maintain the musollah to the best of your ability. This shouldn't be a problem if you also use your own musollah and have a sense of ownership of it.
3. Do Submit your musollah location in http://www.islamicevents.sg/community/musollah/. Also, tell us who you are so we know the musollah location you have is real and there's a real person maintaining it. People think that this is superfluous but I've had a number of friends telling me that this helped them a lot when they need to find a musollah at an unknown location.
Note that it's fine if your musollah is visible to the general public. But our general Muslims are often uneasy about having so many wary eyes stare at them (though this should not be the case). Try if possible to have your musollah in a discrete location instead.
Finally, for the users of these musollahs, do your part by respecting the place of prayer and not make a mess out of it. Try to surprise the musollah maintainer by getting a new sejadah or attar (perfume). We look forward to see more new musollahs.
Musollah Volunteer
With the myriad of musollahs established around we need the collective effort of the community to care for their cleanliness and availability so we've implemented a function where users who frequent the various musollahs are able to identify themselves and act as contact points for the various musollahs.
Some of the things that could be done would be to
1) Ensure the cleanliness and availability of the musollah
2) Take care of peripherals for prayer
3) Report any changes in the information about the musollahs through the report button on the musollah page.
If you are comfortable being a contact point... do click on the volunteer button on the individual musollah page to be part of the volunteer community. The commitment is absolutely ikhlas and up to your own discretion and if you no longer frequent the musollah do inform us at info@islamicevents.sg to remove you from the list.
Together we strive towards a better Muslim community.
Jazakallah Khayran,
Team Islamicevents.sg | 
