Around Middle East: Part Seven

In which I visited a mosque for the first time 

Day Two continues...

We reached the venue at 6:30pm. The bus was parked, we crossed the road to the mall. The Souq Al Jame'a is an underground mall located near the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. It offers a variety of shops and restaurants, and access to the mosque via an underground tunnel. We changed our dresses as per the mosque rules. We got the tickets scanned and had to go through many travelators to reach the mosque by 7pm.

The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

It is a prominent landmark and one of the largest mosques in the world. The late founder of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, aspired to build a mosque personifying the moderation of Islam.

The white marble cladding, the onion-shaped 'crowns,' and the crescent-shaped finials decorated with gold-glass mosaic are striking features that distinguish the dome's design.

The minarets are composed of several square, octagonal, and circular layers, adorned with distinctive sign features such as balconies, gilded finishes, spiral grids, and abundant cornices.

The Sahan is an open space, square or rectangular in shape that is used by worshippers during significant Islamic prayers and large gatherings.

The column design is based on the date palm, and the stylized fronds that form the golden capitals are made of golden anodized aluminum.

The main prayer hall houses the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet, by Guinness World Records in 2007. The intricate Islamic medallion carpet was hand-knotted by approximately 1,200 artisans and took around 2 years, including 8 months of designing and 12 months of knotting. The rest of the time was spent weaving the pieces together. The design is inspired by the date palm tree, where the trunk is the cylindrical part of the chandelier, the fronds are the corresponding parts in a concave shape, and the colored globes are the dates or the fruits of the date palm trees,

three huge crystal chandeliers suspend from the three domes inside the main prayer hall, similar in design, with the largest in the middle, in addition to four smaller chandeliers distributed in the VIP foyer, the Floral foyer and the two side foyers of the main hall.

The Mihrab is an essential architectural element of a mosque and symmetrically located in the middle of the Qibla Wall, known as the place where the imam will stand to lead the worshippers.

The Al Noor Foyer

Floral vines climb and curl in elegant patterns on the walls, creating a beautiful semblance of living plants, and the flowers on the floor are species found in the Arabian Gulf, like Blue Plumbago and Field Gladiolus.

The Minbar is located on the right of the Mihrab. It includes 11 steps to allow the imam (leader of prayers) stands and deliver sermons (khutbah) to address the large number of worshippers.

The prayer hall has one wall facing Makkah, called the Qibla wall. The Qibla wall indicates the direction of the Ka'abah, the cubic-shaped building in the holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. All Muslims pray facing the Ka'abah.

There are 11 clocks in the inner halls designed in the shape of a six-petaled flower made from stainless steel inlaid with pearls. In the center, the analog hands indicate the hour and minutes, while the digital panels indicate the prayer times. At the top, the time indicates the Fajr prayer time, followed by Shorouq or sunrise moving clockwise, then the Dhuhr prayer and Asr prayer. Later the Maghrib prayer performed between sunset and darkness, and concluding with the Isha prayer that is performed after dark, where the technology used takes into account the continuous change in dates throughout the year.

The Mosque's glass doors are made of three panes of Italian Murano glass. The inner and outer panes are clear, but sandwiched between them, is a central pane with a beautiful floral design, using mosaic, cut, and sandblasting techniques.

We spent around an hour admiring the mosque's beauty and architecture and were back to the mall via the tunnel. We drove to the Ibn Batuta mall for dinner at Peshwa restaurant at 9:45pm. 

From the name itself it's clear that our taste buds were satisfied with an authentic marathi cuisine after a long day. We left the mall at 10:30 and were back to the hotel. We were too tired and dozed off.