China Day 7 - Great Mosque of Xi'an, China

Assalamualaikum. Ni Hao!

Previous post here.

18 Jan 2016
Xi'an, China

Purposely putting this in a single entry. Just because; 근냥.

The Great Mosque of Xi'an is the largest mosque in China. An active place of worship within Xi'an Muslim Quarter, this courtyard complex is also a popular tourist site. The majority of the mosque was built during the early Ming dynasty. It now houses more than twenty buildings in its five courtyards, and covers 12,000 square meters. 

-wiki-

Coming from the Bell Tower, be alert to the signage pointing to Xi'an Mosque on your left. It is rather small hence chances you might miss it is there. Just like us. We made a u-turn (rather long walk) to get to the entrance after walking farther into the street food. Nasib masa tu sudah isi perut with so many makanan.

# The signage to the mosque (note that behind is the Bell Tower)

# A little bit of history / introduction to the mosque

# Entrance to the prayer hall

Alhamdulillah, we're given the opportunity to performed our jama' here. We're told by the locals we met at the mosque, although the main hall can accommodate nearly 1 thousand jemaah nowadays only as many as hundred come for pray. Sedih jugalah kan. Anyway, they're very welcome towards Malaysians. When they found out we're Malaysians, they nodded smiled & greeted us with salam many times. Subhanallah. Bangga wei jadi anak Malaysia. 

# Area jemaah muslimin

# Minbar (mimbar) where imam (prayer leader) stands to deliver summons especially before Friday prayer

# Taken from where we sat & performed our prayer

# Super love with the intricate architecture. Very classic

# Quran inscription on the wall, semoga Allah bagi pahala 

# In Chinese characters

# Traditional lanterns

# One for the album

# Phoenix Pavilion at the fourth courtyard; a hexagonal gazebo

# The minaret; a three-story; octagonal pagoda used for the call to prayer (under preservation work)

# Ancient well maybe used for ablution back in the day

# Second courtyard

# Message from the King

# Sundial; used especially in former times which shows time according to where the shadow of a pointer falls. It was used to determine prayer times

# Calligraphy 

# The front gate temple

# Yours Truly before the screen wall behind

We wandered around the mosque after prayer. I was so in love with the combination of traditional Chinese architecture with a bit of Islamic influence. Orang dulu-dulu buat kerja sungguh-sungguh, hence hasil pun bertahan sampai sekarang (of course with Allah's approval). Banyak ibrah boleh diambil from this journey along. 

Tepuk dada, tanya diri apa yang sudah dipelajari. Semoga Allah redha.

Till then, wassalam

eryantierdabdulkarim