The Simple Architecture of Maolana Mohamed Ali Mosque in Singapore

edited by canva

Hi Architecture+Design fellows..

One of the concerns when going to a country where my religion is a minority community is a place of worship, aka a mosque. That also happened when I was in Singapore. Although Islam in Singapore is not a very minor religion, of course finding a place of worship in Singapore is not as easy as when in Indonesia. In my country, in every building, there will always be a small place for worship or what is usually called a Musala.

However, it turns out that finding a mosque in Singapore is not difficult. After The Grand Sultan Mosque, now I have also found another mosque. However, finding it is indeed difficult.

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The Maolana Mohamed Ali Mosque
_{A Simple Mosque In A Minority Country}

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When I looked at Maps and followed it, I had arrived but there was no mosque there. Some people also had difficulty finding this mosque. He and I both went around in circles in the same place. Then we decided to ask the officer there, we were really there but because the sign was small for a mosque sign, we didn't see it. After seeing it, we didn't know where we should worship. Apparently, the mosque was in the basement.

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_{The left sign is for male and the right sign is for female.}

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At this time I won't talk about the history of this mosque but my impression when I was in this mosque. As I mentioned before, this mosque is located in the basement of the UOB building. It is a little different from the ones in Indonesia. If it is located in the basement of the building, it will be called a prayer room. If it is a mosque inside the building, then it will be located on the rooftop. Mosques in Indonesia always have domes, so they will always be on the top floor.

Before entering the prayer room, I had to go down the stairs that led me to a large shelf. That's where we had to take off our shoes because the next place was the holy boundary for the Mosque. In this area, there was only a stainless steel shelf and a plastic chair for the elderly who could not stand for too long.

After going down one more flight of stairs, I entered a long hallway where there were usually meetings with scholars or other speakers for talk shows discussing religion or simply for us to recite the Holy Koran. The walls and floors had the same material, cream marble. The pattern of that marble did not look smooth but I think that the art.

For this area, there was nothing that attracted more attention except for the sign that the mosque had been inaugurated by the local government.

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Different from the material in the hallway earlier, the material for the main room is wooden walls. This is because the special room for women is only part of the entire mosque. The space behind the wall is another room for men. Usually, it has an area twice the size of the women's room. There is a thick red carpet with yellow stripes throughout the room. The thick carpet not only makes people comfortable to worship but also comfortable to sleep.

Yup, in the prayer room, you are always allowed to sleep even if only for a short time.

There are also lockers next to the toilet and a place for take a holy water.

So it can be concluded that the Maolana Mohamed Ali Mosque is very simple and minimalist in architecture. However, what needs to be noted for this mosque is to maintain the fragrance of the room, especially in the corridor, so that it is comfortable to visit always.

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Thanks in advance, to read my blog and hope you like my post!
See you on the next post...

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