Wednesday, April 29, 2009

People pray in all sorts of places here in Abu Dhabi

There is the big boy, the lavish, lovely Taj Mahal-esque Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque that a first-time visitor to Abu Dhabi can't miss as they pass by from the airport.

There are hundreds, I'd wager, of lovely middle-sized mosques. Sometimes people can't fit into some of them, and pray on mats outside. Sometimes there isn't even a mosque: just a group of men in an empty, dusty plot all facing in the same direction on their prayer mats. Being devout does not require a bunch of bells and whistles, just a mat and a qibla, or a sense of one.

I used to walk by the mosque below all the time when I walked home to the Ramee Hotel Apartments. I always marvelled, simply because it looked so much like a shed. Anyway, it looks as though it is being torn down, and I shall stay tuned, curious whether something a little more spiffy is going up in its place.

There is also the possibility, though, it is being sacrificed for some more high-rise apartments.

2 comments:

lmm said...

cool blog.

Anonymous said...

I thought a mosque, once built, could not be torn down. Perhaps that is just a Saudi law not Islam...

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