Masjid Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, Precinct 3, PutrajayaPhoto courtesy of Firdaus Mahadi at Photosantai.com
Putrajaya is a beautiful city. It presents itself as a dignified and orderly town. Some say it’s too orderly and clinical. But that’s another discussion reserved for another day.
When the pioneering city planners set out to plan the city, I’m sure they must have struggled to come up with a convincing concept and a coherent philosophy for it. Try projecting our leader’s obsession for achieving a developed nation status, whilst at the same time, blending it with THE Malaysian identity – whatever that might be – and you’ll get an idea of what kind of a mishmash and hodgepodge you’d get at the end of it.
But eventually they settled on for a philosophy which gives due recognition to men’s existence as the vicegerent of the Creator and his role vis-à-vis his fellow men, the environment, and of course his place in front of God.
Heady stuff, yes. But as a guiding philosophy, certainly workable.
For a start, Putrajaya is already planned to have places of worship for every religion and spiritual belief be it Islam, Christian, Hindu and so on.
Last week end I had the opportunity to take my family to have iftar at the latest place of worship to be developed here that is the Masjid Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin.
Sometimes referred to as the “Masjid Besi” by the press, this mosque serves the people on the Core Island of Putrajaya. Especially on Fridays, this mosque is a much welcomed relief for office workers who have had to endure the heat and traffic congestions when they go for Friday prayers all over Putrajaya and some even as far away as Bangi and Dengkil.
This beautiful mosque can accommodate up to 20,000 people at one time. It has a totally different design to the more classical and Moorish-influenced Masjid Putra. Modern and with simple, clean, design it also uses a lot of steel for construction by comparison.
When we were there, there were around 400 people for iftar. The iftar fare was just nice and simple: dates with some kuih and sirap bandung. After solat Maghrib we continued with dinner. And after solat Tarawih there was moreh, too. But we didn’t wait for that as we left earlier after 8 rakaat of Tarawih.
When the pioneering city planners set out to plan the city, I’m sure they must have struggled to come up with a convincing concept and a coherent philosophy for it. Try projecting our leader’s obsession for achieving a developed nation status, whilst at the same time, blending it with THE Malaysian identity – whatever that might be – and you’ll get an idea of what kind of a mishmash and hodgepodge you’d get at the end of it.
But eventually they settled on for a philosophy which gives due recognition to men’s existence as the vicegerent of the Creator and his role vis-à-vis his fellow men, the environment, and of course his place in front of God.
Heady stuff, yes. But as a guiding philosophy, certainly workable.
For a start, Putrajaya is already planned to have places of worship for every religion and spiritual belief be it Islam, Christian, Hindu and so on.
Last week end I had the opportunity to take my family to have iftar at the latest place of worship to be developed here that is the Masjid Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin.
Sometimes referred to as the “Masjid Besi” by the press, this mosque serves the people on the Core Island of Putrajaya. Especially on Fridays, this mosque is a much welcomed relief for office workers who have had to endure the heat and traffic congestions when they go for Friday prayers all over Putrajaya and some even as far away as Bangi and Dengkil.
This beautiful mosque can accommodate up to 20,000 people at one time. It has a totally different design to the more classical and Moorish-influenced Masjid Putra. Modern and with simple, clean, design it also uses a lot of steel for construction by comparison.
When we were there, there were around 400 people for iftar. The iftar fare was just nice and simple: dates with some kuih and sirap bandung. After solat Maghrib we continued with dinner. And after solat Tarawih there was moreh, too. But we didn’t wait for that as we left earlier after 8 rakaat of Tarawih.
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1 comment:
YEARs on the children will remember the day the family visited and prayed at the mosque during the 2009 Ramadan just as you often recollect the evenings of yr first visit to the kampong mosque with yr dad and maybe riding on the handle bar of his bicyle. Truly Ramadan will bring back a euphoria of flashbacks for it it is a poweful month giving the best of the best and a unifying solidarity at its end. WISHING you and the family a celebratious Eid.
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