Masha’Allah its a very beautiful masjid BUT when I saw this, the saying of the Prophet’s (sal Allahu alayhi wasallam) Companion, Abu Darda came to mind: “If you decorate your mosques and mushaf then destruction will befall you.” And we see nowadays that the Muslim Ummah are doing these things and the state of the Muslims is very poor sadly. May Allah (swt) help the Ummah come back to success, ameen.
Some random facts about the mosque:
Shaikh Zayed Mosque, one of the largest in the world and an architectural wonder.
* The mosque has the world’s largest carpet at 7,119 square metres from Iran.
* The world’s largest chandelier from Germany made from one million Swarovski crystals.
* It has 28 types of marble and 24-carat gold throughout.
* The 22,412 square metre mosque site equates to around the size of five football fields.
* More than 3,000 workers and 38 renowned contracting companies took part in the construction work.
* The mosque has 82 domes all of traditional Moroccan design - all decorated with white marble.
* The main dome’s outer shell is 32.8 metres in diameter and stands at a height of 70 metres from the inside and 85 metres from the outside.
* Officially opened in the month of Ramadan 2007 (December 2007).
* Largest mosque in Arab Emirates, sixth largest in the world, fulfills the dream of the late Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
* Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan is buried in the courtyard of the Mosque.
* Completed in 12 years at a cost of $550 million.
* Considered one of the 10 largest mosques in the world.
* Mosque has a capacity to accommodate 40,000 worshippers, the main prayer hall can accommodate up to 9,000 worshippers, two halls next to the main prayer hall has a capacity of 1,500 each, exclusively for women.
The mosque has achieved three entries into the Guinness Book of World Records with the largest carpet, the biggest chandelier as well as the largest dome of its kind in the world:
Biggest Carpet: The centrepiece is a 6,000 square metre (64,583 square feet) hand-made Persian carpet, said to be the biggest in the world. 1200 Iranian women spent 2 years weaving the carpet, weighing in at a huge 45 tonnes. The carpet covers the floor of the main prayer hall at the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, which can accommodate up to 9,000 worshippers.
Biggest Dome: The main dome is also “the biggest” mosque dome in the world, 75 metres (246 feet) high with a 32.2-metre (105.6 feet) diameter.
Biggest Chandelier: One of seven German-made chandeliers. It is 10-metre (32.8 feet) tall, 10-metre wide and weighs nine tonnes.
