Jumeirah Mosque

On the last day of the festival Mike and I got up early and went to Jumeirah Mosque. This is the only mosque in Dubai that will allow non-Muslims to enter it.



The tour was led by a volunteer named Mohammed who had an awesome sense of humour and was really interesting to listen to. Before entering the masjid (Mosque is the anglicized version of this word) our guide took us through the ritual cleaning process know as the Wudu. This involves cleansing your hands, arms, face, nose and feet by wiping each of them three times. Apparently as long as you don't break with any of the pillars of Islam during the day your Wudu will last you the whole day.



To enter the masjid we all had to remove our shoes and the women were asked to cover their heads. Yes, Mike got a picture of me in my head scarf - jeez. The inside of the mosque was pretty. It had some lovely decorations but was very simple in design. One thing of note is there are no paintings or statues of Mohammed (the prophet) or Allah or any other figure in Islam history. That's a no-no in a mosque. There was, however, a kick ass electronic Qur'an that played the call to prayer and showed the translated version of the Qur'an in a crazy number of languages. Pretty Cool.



Once we looked around a little Mohammed gathered us on the big carpeted area in front of the Iman's niche and talked us through the 5 pillars of Islam. He demonstrated the various prayers that each Muslim does when they enter the masjid which are also done is a very specific way. Following this he talked about the Hajj. This is the pilgrimage that each Muslim is required to make at least once in their life to Mecca. These pilgrimages normally happen around Eid. In fact, Abdullah, the brilliant man who coordinated our office moves for the festival left for his Hajj the day after the festival ended. Once a Muslim has completed their Hajj they have a clean slate in the eyes of Allah. Again pretty cool.



Once Mohammed talked us through all this he opened the floor to questions. Their were questions about the Qur'an. About the various sects of Islam and about women who went about completely covered. I won't go in to any detail about these but it was all very interesting and I would highly recommend taking a tour of a mosque if one is available to you.



There's much to be learned my friends!