Today’s The World Around Us will be presented in Urdu, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Urdu and Thai.

Welcome, respected viewers, to The World Around Us. Today, we will visit the beautiful Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

The Faisal Mosque is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and is also one of the largest mosques in the world. It is named after the late King Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. It has a covered area of 5,000 square meters and is situated beautifully at the end of Shaharah-e-Islamabad. Visible are the picturesque Margalla Hills. The Faisal Mosque is positioned on elevated terraced land and therefore is visible for miles around during the day as well as night.

Let’s now meet Mr. Zafarullah Khan, assistant director of the Faisal Mosque, who kindly showed us the interior of the mosque.

Greetings. My name is Zafarullah Khan. We are standing in the Faisal Mosque, Now I will tell you about Faisal Mosque. I will tell you about the main hall. This hall has a capacity of 10,000 people: 8,500 men and 1,500 women. Women have a separate hall.

Its hall has a height of 42 meters and its minarets have a height of 91 meters. It has three supporting girders, and the chandeliers were imported from West Germany at that time. Its weight is 6.5 metric tons and it has 1,100 bulbs in it. It is gold ionized and is made of aluminum. Its outer ring has 39 lights in it.

The Faisal Mosque’s design by the famous Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay combines contemporary architecture with the looks of a traditional Arab Bedouin tent. The four tall and pencil-like minarets are designed in the fashion of the Turkish tradition. Mr. Dalokay later explained the design to his students:

“I tried to capture the spirit, proportion and geometry of Kaaba in a purely abstract manner. … thus an unseen Kaaba form is bounded by the minarets at the four corners in a proportion of height-to-base of the Shah Faisal Mosque akin to the Kaaba.”

Mr. Zafarullah Khan explained further:

Its specialty is that there is no center column in the building. And the walls have absolutely no load on them. All the load of 80,000 metric tons is on the girders, which is counter balanced with the minarets. And as it is the biggest mosque in Islamabad, hundreds and thousands of people come here five times a day to pray. In Friday prayers, all the hall is full. And it is usually like this. And on some religious events, the halls are full to the maximum. Altogether the mosque has a capacity for 90,000 people. If we take into account the lawns too, then almost 300,000 people can offer prayers in it.

The first impetus for building of the mosque came when King Faisal visited Pakistan in 1966 and supported the initiative of the Pakistani government to build a national mosque in Islamabad. In 1969, an international competition was held in which architects from 17 countries submitted their proposals for the construction. Turkish architect Vedat Dalokay won the competition. Construction began in 1976 and was completed in 1986. King Faisal also largely paid the construction expense. After his passing in 1975, it was decided that the mosque would be named after him.

A splendid mosaic adorns the interior Western wall of the mosque. Its tiles form the words of the Kalimah (“word of Islam”) in early Kufic script. This artwork was done by the famous Pakistani artist Mr. Ismail Gulgee.

The place you can see in front of you is known as the stage. You can see the first seven verses of the Holy Qur’an written in a circular shape.

Here on specific religious days, the imam gives a sermon for rest of the practitioners. All praise to the Lord of the Worlds, In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Merciful. With that, it is written that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad, peace be upon him, is his Prophet. This statement is written on every two panels. You can read the complete statement of oneness written on the center panel.

Moreover, it is made of ceramic tiles and our scholar Gulgee has performed all these tasks. They start from this corner and they encircle the complete mosque. Two panels are left empty here and two there. But on all the other panels, this statement is written on ceramic tiles.

And this is known as the Qibla Wall. There are three types of tiles on the Qibla Wall. Blue tiles, green tiles and yellow tiles. The blue tiles show the color of the sky. And the green ones depict the grass. And the yellow ones are depicting the blessings of God which He showers upon us. This is Mr. Gulgee’s concept.

Mr. Zafarullah Khan read for us the first seven verses of the Holy Qu’ran which are written in the circle at the center of the Qibla Wall.

Above the stage you can see the first few verses of the Holy Qur’an. “In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent and the Merciful, All praises to the Lord of the Worlds, The Beneficent and the merciful, Owner of the Day of Judgment.”

In front of the Qibla Wall, there is also a vertically raised book sculpture which shows a part of the Holy Qur’an.

In front of you is the stage. Over here, the Imam stands and prays five times a day. And apart from that, special religious prayers are also offered. It seems like you have opened the Holy Qur’an and it is in front of you. On the border, the 99 Names of Allah are written. And in the center, the chapter “The Magnificent” is written on the blue tile. This is from one of our provinces. It is called lapis lazuli.” God’s name is written on them, and on the other side, you can see its reflection.

Throughout the Faisal Mosque, the 30 parts of the Holy Qur’an are displayed in cases. The different parts feature 406 styles of calligraphy, made by one of Pakistan and the world’s most renowned masters of calligraphy, Ustad Khurshid Gohar Qualam. The entire manuscript weighs 1,600 kilograms!

So I was telling you about the Faisal Mosque. It has the 30 parts of the Qur’an. This is the first one, and all over the mosque, the 30 parts are distributed. Each part weighs 40 kilograms. This book is the first chapter of the Holy Qur’an. The Holy Qur’an has 30 chapters. This is one chapter. It was written in six years. This is written by Khursheed Aalam Gohar.

The Faisal Mosque also features artwork by the world famous painter and calligraphist Sadequain.

This beautiful picture is a painting on marble pieces. And it is painted by Sadequain. It’s written: “All Muslims are brothers and sisters.” That all the Muslims are brothers and sisters irrespective of color or creed. “All Muslims are brothers and sisters.” And it is painted on marble pieces, apparently it seems that it is painted on some canvas. But these are marble, white marble pieces which are painted. “I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah Come to the prayer…”

Worshippers from all around Pakistan as well as other countries come to visit the Faisal Mosque and experience the tranquility of this sacred place.

Greetings, I am from Mansehra and, this is a beautiful place.

This is a mosque for people to pray.

Many people come here to visit the Faisal Mosque because it is a very peaceful place. And many people come here to pray because this is a very famous mosque in Pakistan.

I appeal to all the Muslims that people should blend with each other beautifully when you enter a mosque. Similarly, we should forget everything and live with one another as human beings. So that no one gets hurt because of us. And we should not compare ourselves with anyone. Because the reality is that we should not do such things that we do not want others to do to us. The conflicts on the basis of caste, color and creed should be ended and everyone should live together as Muslims in our country. And we should respect one another.

And people should bring their children to this great mosque in Pakistan. So that children come to know about the great and beautiful things in our country like they know about places in the world. So that everyone should know that this is our country and this is our religion, what our religion tells and what it teaches.

“Come to Prayer, Come to Prayer Come to Success, Come to Success …There is no God But Allah”

Thank you Mr. Zafarullah Khan and the caretakers of the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, for allowing us to explore the splendid Faisal Mosque. May the pious people who come to this glorious holy mosque be blessed by Allah evermore.

Thank you, gracious viewers, for joining us on The World Around Us. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News. May your heart be serene.