Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Sheikh Zayed was the Founder of the U.A. E. back in 1971. He brought the 7 Emirates leaders and families together to form the U.A.E. So he is recognized all over the country on billboards, sides of buildings, pictures in buildings, virtually everywhere. Often it will have his picture with the caption underneath "Our Father" much like George Washington is considered one of the founding fathers of the USA.


So to recognize his greatness they planned a mosque in his name, but it wasn't complete until 2007, 3 years after his death. At the time it opened it was the 2nd largest in the world and believe me it is huge. He is buried at the mosque and there is always someone there praying over a loudspeaker, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, they change out every 30 minutes.




Oh, look there's Kathleen all dressed up for her mosque tour, legs and arms covered on the steps of the Grand Mosque, is that okay? Yes it is, since they do tours about 5 days a week.

Wait one minute, is she in an Abaya now? Evidently they wanted to be sure all women were covered properly. they still made her put an Abaya on despite the fact that she followed the instructions prior to arrival. Those flowers on the column are not painted on they are inlaid.





Some of the huge glass doors inside weigh 17 tons. There is a separate women's prayer room, but there is also the outside area along with the large prayer room with the world's largest single piece of carpet, where 7000 men can kneel and pray at once. Believe it or not there are lines on the carpet and on the marble outside that show the men how to line up for prayer and there is a very specific way that it's done, once the first man is in place. The whole mosque can hold up to 50,000 people for prayer at once.

Ahmed our tour guide for 45 minute tour explained everything we asked about and was very friendly. Here he is standing inside the main prayer room.






As I said about the Emirates Palace, it's all about opulence and so is the mosque. It has a 9.5 ton chandelier, it has more than a few of the etched glass 17 ton doors , the tile floor that is outside exposed to the sunlight is always cool to the touch so during prayer when they put their forehead on the ground it doesn't burn them and I'm talking 120 degree heat in the summer time.
The materials used in the building of the mosque came from all over the world and they are very proud of that fact.



Not much more to tell you about the mosque other than it's worth visiting when you come here. Very impressive, good tour guides and gives you a some insight to the Muslim faith.

This quote reminds me of the life of a friend of mine, unfortunately for her.
QOB: "Beware of the barrenness of an overcrowded life." Anonymous

I think Anonymous is the most quoted person in history. Looking back at this quote do you recognize anyone in your life or even yourself? Is there someone that seems so busy with so many things going on that either they don't realize how empty their life is or they simply want to avoid how empty it is?
Maybe you can take a minute and talk to that person and help them to realize that if they dump some of the things that are crowding them in, they may have more time for themselves and be able to fill that barrenness with something important that may stay around for a long time.