From the age of a small girl, I have seen every men in my family visit Juma Majid Palayam every Friday.It is also called as Palayam Pally.
The interesting fact is that just adjacent to the mosque is one Ganesha Temple and a Church, establishing the communal harmony of Keralites.
This is the most important mosque in Trivandrum.Around 1813 Ad, during the time of the British , this was constructed as a small mosque.Then , there was an open space alloted for Id Prayers.My family says that this mosque is almost 200 years old.
My late father-in-law has been buried here.Later the mosque was developed into what it is today. In 1967, Dr.Zakir Hussain, the President of India, inaugurated the Juma Masjid.Vaccation classes for the Holy Quran are conducted for kids here. P K Ahmed Kutty Moulavi, imam of the Palayam mosque, opened the doors of the mosque for women for the first time in south Kerala.
More than 250 women attend the prayers at the Palayam Mosque on ordinary days, whereas on Fridays their numbers increase to around 1, 000. The imam is of the opinion that there is nothing unIslamic in women offering prayers in mosques. As a girl child we were not allowed to go to the Masjid , but now I am happy that our Imam is allowing women to offer prayers at the Masjid. So now the female members of our family has started going to the Juma Masjid to offer prayers.