My Visit to the Grand Mosque of Kuwait – مسجد الكبير

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

May Allah’s (SWT) peace and blessings be upon you.

A week back, I visited  the Grand Mosque of Kuwait, المسجد الكبير.  Which made me awe in astonishment to how beautifully it was constructed and on the other hand about the hidden history behind how each part of the masjid was built and various other minor details which made this tour quite interesting for me. 17 years of me being present here in Kuwait and out of million other visits I’ve done to many other places, I’d pinpoint about the fact of this visit being a real worth it one. I learned so much about it, within just one day. Thanks to my Guide, Miss Madawi who made sure I did understand everything she explained and took me on a mini tour around the building and feeding me the interesting informations about how and why regarding its construction. And clicked a few pictures of me too. Well, I’m not a professional photographer but I did manage to click some decent pictures in order to be able to make it easy to understand to those of whom didn’t/ weren’t able to pay a visit to this wonderful place.

Beginning with the details of The Grand Mosque of Kuwait: “The Grand Mosque“, the grand, the huge and the official mosque of the country Kuwait. The main reason to why it was constructed was because, back then, there were just a few small mosques at which during the Friday congregational prayers and the grand prayers such as Taraweeh and the two main Eid prayers, some worshippers had to pray outside the mosque due to no space being available for huge crowds of people and congestion. The mosques built back then were small as a result of which all the people didn’t fit inside the building and this made it very inconvenient for the worshippers. Hence, the Sheikh, may his soul rest in peace, took great care of this issue and from his very own budget he put 14,000,000 Kuwaiti dinars into the construction of this Grand Mosque which now has all the facilities easily available for the worshippers without even the tiniest bit of inconvenience, Alhamdulillah. May Allah (SWT) bless him, the Sheikh, for his kindness, generousness and care towards all his people and the ease he offered to all of us by constructing Masjid al-Kabeer from the day it was constructed till present.

Masjid al-Kabeer. (Right side, outer view.)

The picture in the right is the view of the mosque from the outside. Just the right side. The construction began in 1979 and opened in 1986, after completed. The area of the building is 45,000 sq meters out of which the building alone covers 20,000 sq meters.

I entered the mosque after successfully being checked by 2 lady securities and trust me, it was just amazing, the view not the security checking obviously. There was a Diwaniya/ Majlis (a place of sitting) where I was told to be seated and wait for my guide to come and guide me around the mosque. The very first place I was taken to was the main prayer hall. ماشاء الله.

Main prayer hall. (Inside Masjid al-Kabeer)

It was quite wide. It was about 72 meters wide from all the sides. It had 144 windows and doors made from pure teak wood on various corners. The most important thing to be noticed about the main prayer hall was, around 10,000 worshipers could fit inside it, ماشاء الله.  It was that wide and had a few TV’s attached on the walls and pillars for the convenience of people sitting behind so that they could see the Imam clearly while delivering sermons or during a question and answer event which was held often for the worshippers based on variety of religious topics. There are Qur’ans with the stands on every corners.

Teak wood doors

Qur’an on the stand. (Present in every corner in the main prayer hall.)

Dome. The center of attraction in the main prayer hall is the dome. The dome is 26 meters in diameter and was 43 meters high from the ground. The inner part of the dome is decorated with the Asma al-Husna (the 99 names of Allah SWT). And the lower part has verses of Surah al-Ghafir (7-9) sculptured on it. The verses are :

الَّذِينَ يَحْمِلُونَ الْعَرْشَ وَمَنْ حَوْلَهُ يُسَبِّحُونَ بِحَمْدِ رَبِّهِمْ وَيُؤْمِنُونَ بِهِ وَيَسْتَغْفِرُونَ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا رَبَّنَا وَسِعْتَ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ رَحْمَةً وَعِلْماً فَاغْفِرْ لِلَّذِينَ تَابُوا وَاتَّبَعُوا سَبِيلَكَ وَقِهِمْ عَذَابَ الْجَحِيمِ

رَبَّنَا وَأَدْخِلْهُمْ جَنَّاتِ عَدْنٍ الَّتِي وَعَدْتَهُمْ وَمَنْ صَلَحَ مِنْ آبَائِهِمْ وَأَزْوَاجِهِمْ وَذُرِّيَّاتِهِمْ إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَزِيزُ الْحَكِيمُ

وَقِهِمُ السَّيِّئَاتِ وَمَنْ تَقِ السَّيِّئَاتِ يَوْمَئِذٍ فَقَدْ رَحِمْتَهُ وَذَلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ

7. Those who bear the Throne and those around it glorify the praises of their Lord and believe in Him and ask forgiveness [of God] for those who believe [saying]: “Our Lord! You comprehend all things in Mercy and Knowledge, so forgive those who repent and follow Your Path and save them from the torment of Fire!

8. “Our Lord! And make them enter the abodes in gardens which you have promised them and to the righteous among their fathers, their wives, and their offspring! Indeed, You are the Omnipotent, the All-Wise.

9. “And [O Lord!] save them from the sins [and the recompense of their evil deeds], and whomsoever You save from the sins that Day, him indeed, You have taken into Mercy.” And that is the supreme deliverance.

Lower part of the dome where the Ayahs are sculptured.

The interior of the dome which is designed with Asma al-Husna.

In the main prayer hall, there are just 4 pillars, holding the dome. Around it. You must have noticed how in other tall buildings, there will be more pillars in order to hold the building firmly and to balance the upper floors too. But here, at Masjid-al-Kabeer, the pillars are just four in number leaving a lot of space for the worshipers to fit in without congesting the area with more pillars. The AC is constructed inside these pillars and the walls, camouflaged like the designs of the pillars and walls in order to maintain its elegance. There are also just 4 Italian chandeliers around the dome. Per chandelier contains 102 lamps and weighs 1 ton each.

The four pillars around the dome.

A Chandelier on the left side of the dome.

The next were the Mashrabiyas (projecting oriel windows). These windows were built on the top floors of the main prayer hall through which the women can view any sermon, Quran competitions or any other events being held in the main prayer hall without being visible. Therefore, the main purpose of these Mashrabiyas are privacy for women.

Mashrabiya (view from the main prayer hall)

View from the women’s prayer Chamber.

About the designs of the pillars and walls, I was surprised! Astonished to learn that these designs were handmade. Every part of it were done by hands using a small piece of stone as a print. The architects from different countries such as Morocco, Iran, India, Syria etc were involved in designing these beautiful designs on the pillars, making it look the same, and even in shape too. Imagine the time and patience they would have had while designing them, Subhan Allah!

The colorful design on the background was the design almost in all the pillars and internal walls of the Mosque.

The piece of stone used.

The pulpit from which the Imam delivers khutba (Sermon) was well constructed. Normally, mosques have staircases through which the Imam has to climb and reach the pulpit right at that moment. It has one door and a visible staircase but here at Masjid al-Kabeer, there were two doors that looked alike on both, left and right side. Left door is where the Imam has to walk into in order to walk through the stairs located inside to reach the pulpit that was located on the other, right side. It was well covered, making it easy for both, the Imam and worshippers, again with more space and no congestion.

The door where the stairs where located.

The staircase

The pulpit where the Imam will reach through that door.

The Amir’s Diwaniyah is located on the right corner of the main prayer hall. This hall is where the Amir (Sheikh) of Kuwait and even the other ambassadors are normally welcomed during any important meetings. The Amir usually offers both the Eid prayers in congregation along with the other worshippers standing behind the Imam at Masjid al-Kabeer. This is an example of how the rich, the poor, the black and the white has no difference in the sight of Allah (SWT) and so all kinds of worshippers offer the prayers together following the sunnah of our Holy Prophet (PBUH).

The Amir’s hall. (Replica of the Quran used during the reign of the third Khalifah is kept on the centre.)

The other way of entrance to the hall.

Supplication to be recited while entering and exiting the mosque. (Outside the Amir’s hall)

Surah al-Fatiha sculptured on the door that leads towards the main prayer hall from the Amir’s hall

The replica of the Qur’an used during the reign of the third Khalifa, Uthman (R.A) is kept on the center of the Amir’s hall. Also the calligraphic pens used, ink bottle, knife and thread are kept alongside the Qur’an. This Qur’an contains no Damma, Fatha, Kasra or Sukoon making it hard for today’s people to recite it. Hence, nowadays the Qur’ans which are available comes with signs and is easier to read than those used during the olden era. Anyway, there are people who can still read and understand the olden day’s Qur’an, I believe. However the contents are unchanged and same so it doesn’t really make any difference except for the ease to read and understand every word of it.

Replica of the Quran

A closer look

The women’s prayer chamber is on the second floor of the building. It contains an ablution taking area outside the chamber. The inside of it was wide too. Around 950 women could fix in and offer prayers. There were Qur’ans with the stands, prayer cloths and also chairs for the old aged people who couldn’t sit on the floor.

Women’s prayer Chamber

The courtyard. The courtyard is wide and it often contains numbers stuck on the walls in order to avoid confusion during Ramadan and or Taraweeh prayers, when huge number of worshippers will be present. There will be volunteers who will be helping help worshippers to reach the right prayer hall without taking wrong turns on the courtyard and getting late for prayers. On the right and left sides of the courtyard contains the toilets for men and women located separately. There are colorful chandeliers around the courtyard that looks really bright and elegant after sunset.

Courtyard. (Up-Right side and Down-left side)

Chandelier of this type were around the courtyard.

These informations mentioned above are just about the few pictures I was able to click during my visit but there’s a lot more one can really discover inside Masjid al-kabeer. It has a library filled with Islamic books. And also a number of separate halls besides the main prayer hall where debate, quizzes and Elocution competitions were often held for various school teams. These same halls were also given to the mothers with small babies while Ramadan and Taraweeh prayers were held so that the other worshippers don’t get disturbed by the bawling babies. There are different sections such as the visitors section, ladies’ section and the men’s section where the staffs belonging to their respective sections are busy with preparing for one or the other upcoming events. Like for example, the ladies’ section has been planning on holding an Arabic course for just the women every two days a week. There is also a Fatwa center in which two scholars are available during working hours.

Apart from all other visits of mine, this one was a real worth it one! It was quite interesting to explore the history of the official mosque of Kuwait and study the details, even minute details of each and every part of it. For everyone who lives in Kuwait and out of Kuwait as well, the visit to the Grand mosque of Kuwait is a must! At least once. //-N.N