Do you always bring a prayer rug with you? Must you pray at a fixed time? How do you pray during the work day? Do you have a Shabbat?

These were among the questions posed by more than three dozen attendees at last week’s meeting of an interfaith dialogue group at Daar Ul Islam, a West County mosque, in an effort to find common ground and explore differences among religious groups.

“This is about understanding faith and how we practice it more than anything else,” said Rick Isserman, one of the group’s founders and a member of Central Reform Congregation. “It’s not to proselytize. It’s to understand.”

Fellow organizer Khalid Shah, one of the group’s Muslim participants, said honest conversations can sometimes be difficult but they are necessary to build connections that can be of use during times of trouble.

“It’s very important that dialogue not just be polite because you really do want to understand each other,” he said, “so we’ve created an environment where you can be comfortable that no one’s going to come and necessarily have an agenda but at the same time we have very different points of view and everyone should feel comfortable airing them.”

This is the latest initiative to involve the Shah and Isserman families who have been part of interfaith efforts since the early 1990s. Shah has attended Passover seders at Isserman’s home and Isserman has returned the favor during Islamic festivals.

This was the second session for the group which met at CRC last month for a Tu B’Shevat seder which Isserman said attracted 40 participants despite a driving snowstorm. Attendance to Thursday’s event, convened to discuss the intricacies of prayer, was comparable. Next month’s meeting is set for St. Patrick’s Day at St. Cronan’s Church, a Catholic church in south St. Louis. Future gatherings will rotate between various houses of worship.

Dr. Waheed Rana, an imam who teaches at various mosques in the area, led much of the discussion. He described Islamic prayer practices to participants and spoke about the significance of the various movements and recitations.

“You are making supplication, saying ‘O God Almighty, glory be to You. You are the highest.’ You are not bowing to any other thing than God Almighty,” he said.

He said that the parts of the prayer, which include standing upright, bowing and prostration, are important aspects of the act, as they show supplication to the creator.

“The time when you are in that position, you are closest to God Almighty,” he said.

He said it is a time to ask for Allah’s assistance.

“What do we ask? Not material things. We ask forgiveness,” he told the group.

Rabbi Susan Talve of CRC, which is one of the dialogue’s sponsors, spoke of Jewish ceremonial aspects of prayer and speculated as to whether the formalities of prayer might make participants feel more committed to doing good in the world.

“These are very profound teachings with profound questions for all of us,” she said. “How does the prayer practice influence our actions?”

Rana told the story of a man who approached the Prophet Mohammed and asked him how he would know if his actions were accepted by God.

“His answer was very simple and straightforward,” the imam said. “He said that whatever you do, if it changes your behavior than it has been accepted.”

Various participants noted the difficulty of staying engaged and alert while praying and the challenge of keeping focused during the act. Shah said he had spent a number of years trying to deconstruct and analyze the act of prayer in his faith.

“Prayer should be transformational,” he said. “It really should be and if we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that it often isn’t. The fault isn’t with prayer. The fault has to lie with us.”

Without warning, the session was interrupted by a real-life demonstration of the topic as the call to prayer echoed from the sanctuary next to the meeting room. The connecting door was opened and participants quietly watched as dozens of Muslims worshipped and prayed, going through the motions described earlier by Rana. Participants willing to remove their shoes were admitted into the sanctuary itself for a closer look.

“I found it interesting that the children come and they all seem to know what they are doing,” said Marilyn Lorenz.

Faith has played a diverse role in Lorenz’s life. At one time, she taught world religions at Nerinx Hall, a Catholic high school for girls in Webster Groves. Today, she is a Catholic who attends services at CRC, which she enjoys because of the spirit of the prayer there.

“I consider myself to be a human being looking for God,” she said.

CRC member Rodi Booker said that she had participated in conversations focused on race but never before on religious issues. “This is new but I expect to get some of the same things out of this as I have in others where you can break down some inhibitions and comfort zones,” she said. “You can approach people easier and ask questions.”

Chris Czarnecki, a member at Unity Church of Peace in south St. Louis, said he hoped the event would connect people. “That way there’s not so much separation between faiths,” he said.

CRC member Philip Deitch said witnessing the prayer was the most moving part of the evening for him. “Whenever I’m here I just feel so welcomed, so comfortable, so loved,” he said. “I hope and pray that these dialogue groups will do that for everyone.”

Rana said his goal was to impart some depth as far as Islamic practice is concerned.

“I will be very happy if people understand how we worship so they will have an open mind and when they see us they will know what we are doing,” he said.