Beyond Prayer Walls: Are Mosques Ready for Tough Health Conversations?

Mosques have shown to be influential platforms for delivering health messages, particularly in contexts where trust in healthcare institutions may be low. Faith-based health campaigns have achieved notable success among Muslim communities, such as in cardiovascular and cancer screening efforts conducted within mosque settings in the US, Turkey, and Bangladesh⁴. For example, Bader et al. (2006) showed that culturally sensitive programmes for Turkish Muslim women that integrated Islamic teachings with preventive health knowledge increased both participation and awareness⁵. When health promotion is embedded within familiar religious settings, like Friday sermons (khutbah) or Quranic study groups, it reaches individuals in ways that generic health campaigns often cannot, particularly within Muslim communities⁶. In Singapore, the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) conducts community-based kidney screenings, using mosques as key venues. In conjunction with World Kidney Day on 14 March 2024, NKF partnered with An-Nur Mosque for a health forum, culminating in a community health screening in collaboration with Alami Clinic that benefited over 7,000 residents from the Marsiling and Woodlands community, demonstrating the mosque’s flexibility as a health outreach space⁷.

Singapore is no exception from this trend. The M³ Focus Area 5 (FA5) initiative, led by M³ (made up of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), MENDAKI and PA MESRA) and supported by the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the Health Promotion Board (HPB), uses mosques as one of their outreach platforms for state-led health initiatives and education programmes⁸. As part of MUIS’s 8th 3-year plan and new Mosque Excellence Framework, religious officers are encouraged to train in Islamic Spiritual Care and Counselling, expanding their roles to include conversations around everyday struggles and issues⁹.

These programmes show that the mosque can be a relevant, trusted platform to promote health, but a critical question remains: can it also be a space for sensitive or taboo topics?

3. When Health Feels Too Personal: Chronic Illness as a Taboo

Islam places great emphasis on health as a divine trust, where maintaining one’s well-being is seen as a form of devotion in Islam. In a Hadith recorded in Sunan at Tirmidhi no. 2417, Rasulullah S.A.W said,

"The feet of the slave of Allah shall not move [on the Day of Judgement] until he is asked about five things: about his life and what he did with it, about his knowledge and what he did with it, about his wealth and how he earned it and where he spent it on, about his body and for what did he wear it out."

The Hadith underscores the spiritual responsibility of maintaining one’s physical health and body as part of faith.

In Singapore, national efforts by bodies such as M³, the Health Promotion Board (HPB), and the Ministry of Health (MOH) have sought to engage the Malay/Muslim community through initiatives like Saham Kesihatan and Selangkah Bersama: HPB Parental Wellness Show for the Malay Community. These programmes aim to empower health awareness and encourage preventive action through culturally relevant, state-led activities.

Despite these efforts, health conversations within Malay/Muslim communities continue to be shaped by cultural sensitivities and social stigma, even though Islamic teachings encourage the preservation of health as a divine duty. Illness is sometimes viewed through moral or spiritual lenses — as a test of faith, a sign of weakness, or a form of divine punishment. Such beliefs can make individuals hesitant to discuss chronic conditions, disability, or mental health. For those facing diseases like Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), this silence may reinforce fatalism and delay care-seeking, even when support and screening are accessible.

In Singapore, this dynamic contributes to disproportionately high rates of kidney failure among Malays, despite free screening programmes under NKF Singapore. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) remains a complex health-related challenge that Malays face today, as Singapore's 2022 dialysis statistics reveal a higher prevalence among Malays (459 per million) compared to Chinese (150 per million) and Indians (183 per million)¹⁰.

This raises the question: are kidney screenings in Singapore truly effective in addressing the Malay community? Research on community-driven kidney screening elsewhere (such as in the African-American community) highlighted that the resistance to undergo kidney screening remains low, not due to accessibility, but because of the perceived lack of cultural appropriateness in the approach¹¹. Scholars such as Krueter and McClure (2004) stress that health communication must be culturally congruent, not just translated, but resonant¹². Without messages that reflect the community’s religious and social realities, even well-intentioned programmes can fall short. To address this chronic disease effectively, it is crucial to confront taboos, reframe good health practices as part of faith, and empower mosques to be safe spaces for such conversations.

4. Why do we need culturally tailored guidelines for Mosques in Singapore?

Mosques hold great potential to bridge the gap between personal health struggles and collective dialogue, but they are not neutral spaces.

Currently, there are no clear guidelines on how to approach sensitive health topics and how health can be communicated to Singapore’s Malay/Muslim community while being culturally grounded in a way that is both theologically sound and emotionally safe for congregants.

Moreover, engaging effectively with this community may be challenging, as scholars suggest that what may appear as resistance to modernity often reflects deeper historical and structural factors¹³. Many Malay/Muslims today still turn to traditional or spiritual remedies before seeing a doctor—not out of rejection of modern medicine, but because these are trusted, familiar sources of care. As one scholar notes, despite the state’s dominance of professional medicine, traditional healing “thrives at the margins,” showing its continued cultural relevance¹⁴.

As part of an ongoing research project, I suggest that developing culturally centered health conversation frameworks for health conversations within mosques should include the following:

1. Training for religious officers in trauma-informed care and health literacy;
2. Guidelines for addressing sensitive topics during khutbahs and counselling sessions;
3. Community dialogue formats that allow anonymous participation;
4. Collaborations with Muslim healthcare professionals who can bridge both worlds – religious and medical perspectives.

5. Conclusion: A Mosque Beyond Prayer

This article addresses the growing concern of chronic illnesses within the Malay community in Singapore. Despite state-led efforts to raise awareness, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) continues to disproportionately affect this community. Leveraging the mosque as a site for health engagement resonates deeply with the Malay/Muslim community, as it is already a trusted space for learning, reflection, and collective support.

Mosques hold the potential to be more than places of worship — they can serve as compassionate and trusted community spaces where the realities of health and illness are openly discussed. As issues such as kidney disease, cancer, and mental health become increasingly urgent, envisioning the mosque as a center that embodies the Islamic values of knowledge, healing, and communal care becomes essential.

Encouraging these conversations within sacred spaces does not diminish faith; rather, it deepens it, reflecting an Islam that nurtures both the spiritual and physical well-being of its community.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/more-people-getting-kidney-failure-in-singapore