Friday prayer at the Grand Mosque

I was in Mecca again this week and was sat very close to the front for the sermon and the prayer itself. The feeling is unreal. One of the main reasons why I went back to Mecca so quickly was because I didn’t get to pray in congregation last time. It’s a very unique place to prayer for a few reasons.

The first is that there is no segregation between men and women. Here men and women can pray side-by-side, if they chose to. They do encourage them to use separate areas but it is not compulsory. It becomes difficult to pray in separate areas when it is too busy in the mosque, like it was on Friday.

The second reason is that there aren’t are rows that you have in other mosques. It’s literally spherical. It’s amazing when you see it from an aerial view, like I did on Thursday night for the night prayer. Being a part of that was really cool.

There’s a buzz and excitement about the place when the imam is delivering the sermon (in Arabic) and when you form the rows an electric current runs through the people. It’s a spectacular experience that words really can’t do justice.

My standard comment with all of these pictures is you have to go and experience it. You really do.