August 2018
The Grand Mosque - The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is one of the largest mosques in the world in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Temperature around 115 degrees Fahrenheit. The Sun was super bright.
Pakistani driver Osama wheels into the massive parking lot of the Mosque as we try to get to the 9:30 visitor tour (the Mosque can accommodate over 40,000 worshipers).
We didn’t make the 9:30 am tour in time.
I’ll admit I was a bit annoyed. However, after I needed to don an abayas/cloak (even though I had on a long skirt with a long-sleeve top - it was not considered appropriate clothing for entrance), and the fact I was able to explore this wonder of the world on my own, I felt exhilarated with what I was about to see and learn about this mosque. I conveniently forgot we got there “late.”
After leaving our shoes in the cubbies provided and me now appropriately dressed to explore the mosque, Osama took off to pray. Thankfully, he promised to meet me at the start of the next tour at 11:00 am sharp. I wasn’t sure that would be the case, but he was at our meeting spot 10 minutes early!
Finally, excited as a four-year-old at a birthday party, at now at the mosque’s main entrance, with its white marble facade with twin fountains, reflecting pools, and repeating Moorish archways—a sight to behold—I entered a divergent sphere.
With each step, I was practically out of my skin into an elegant mosque area.
As a Christian woman walking in this world of splendor before me, my eyes lit up with each barefoot step I took to investigate this mammoth building. Shivers ran up and down my spine with its beauty and grandness around each marble and inlaid corner - all to worship the same God as me!
The glass entrances and exits to go between areas of the mosque were squeaky clean, and there was a lesson about extreme heat and why air-conditioning is one of life’s greatest inventions. The doors were electronically controlled, so one didn’t walk right through them - I could see that would be an easy misstep except for the stunning inlaid flowers in the stained glass.
The long hour spent becoming familiar with the layout of the mosque and its many doors, the mosque’s main prayer hall with its hand-woven rug, marble columns, and gold and crystal chandeliers, along with learning about the mosque’s exterior lighting system that creates the illusion of a moonlit sky when dark, provided excitement to me to be actually standing in something so spiritual and enthralling.
I couldn’t get over the handwoven wool rug, though. This carpet got me to the core. I wanted to lay down on it and feel the wool under my skin (like doing a snow angel), but that idea was hard to execute since I was covered from my head to the tops of my feet with the abaya, and it was probably too weird if I tried. At least I could feel that enormous rug with my hands and feet. I knelt several times so my hands could run over and touch the knotted wool since I am tactile and “know things” through touch.
According to the Grand Mosque website, the main prayer hall houses the world’s largest hand-knotted carpet, and it garnered that distinction from 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 carpet was made in nine separate pieces, flown to Abu Dhabi, and stitched together on-site. The final carpet, which fills the entire Main Prayer Hall, is 5,400 square meters and weighs 35 tons, of which about 70% is made of New Zealand wool and 30% of cotton.
That’s one giant carpet that “deserves” some rug angels, at least with hands and feet.
By the time Osama and I met up, with me perusing as many nooks and crannies of the Grand Mosque as possible, I was all set to hear our guide on the 90-minute tour.
I am still in awe of my time there and getting shivers while I write this story. I not only took photos, but my mind also seared photos onto my heart and soul, plus the indescribable feelings I got while enjoying something so different.
Breathless. Still.
Lingering Inspirations.
bSoleille!
Terri
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