We have seen our share of mosques on this trip, from Kazan in Russia to Kuala Kangsar in Malaysia. But just when you think you have seen it all, there is another building with minarets around the corner to blow your mind yet again.
Even though it is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi as a city is not as huge and impressive as Dubai. But it’s new mosque, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the biggest in the UAE and one of the biggest mosques in the world, may well be the most impressive religious edifice we’ve seen so far. It was openend in 2008 after more than a decade of planning and construction, and is named after the ‚father of the nation‘, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who initiated the builing of the Grand Mosque. It has the world’s largest prayer carpet, provides space for 40 000 worshippers, has 82 domes – just a few numbers that give you a sense how giant this mosque is. The mosque has a very welcoming atmosphere: it is open to visitors of any religion outside the Muslim prayer times, and there is not even an entry fee. All they ask for is that women are covered in an abaya, the black gown and a black headscarf, which they provide at the entrance. It initially felt weird being covered in all this black fabric, that Westerners so often associate with the oppression of women in Islam, but I took it as part of the cultural experience wandering around the mosque. And strangely enough, within this cultural contex, I felt like I blended in for the first time. Nobody looked at me as they usually would, and for the first time since we arrived in the Emirates you could just walk amongst the other Emiratis without standing out as a foreigner. I mingeled with the other women in black and it was kind of fun. I guess only because I knew I can take that black thing off again once we exit the mosque… But it definitely gave me a small insight into what devote Muslims mean when they talk about how the abaya can be freeing rather than oppressing.
While the style of the mosque, especially the decoration inside the main prayer hall, tends to be a bit kitschy for our taste, the overall architecture and design of the building, domes and courtyards is just stunning. So for all we now, this is not yet another mosque, but the new gem in Abu Dhabi.
