The Sultan Mosque in Singapore enlists among the most beautiful Sunni Muslim mosques in the world according to their beauty and their holding capacity in the same time. Located in the Malay quarter of Singapore – the Kampong Glam, the Sultan Mosque is the biggest and most beautiful religious sites of the country.
The first Sultan of Singapore, Sultain Hussain Shah with the cooperation of the British East Indian Company had built the Sultan Mosque in 1824. The building we can see today is due to the complete rebuilding of the former mosque works supervised by the Irish architect Dennis Santry who had applied an Indo–Saracenic style in its designs of the Sultan Mosque. It is very important to note that all the donations collected for the rebuilding of the mosque. The most notable is the glass bottle collecting activity of poorer Muslims, which you can see within the mosque to this day in form of a beautiful internal ring featured in the base of this attractive mosque being made out of these glasses entirely, this way showing respect even for the smallest donations of worshippers. The total area of the mosque occupies 4.109 square metres and the mosque has a capacity of welcoming a maximum number of five thousand Muslim worshippers. Naturally, the mosque is oriented toward Mecca, the most sacred place of all Muslims.
It is notable to mention that Sunni Muslim is the third largest religion of Singapore exercised by mainly Malays, Javanese and by the Arabic, Pakistani, North Indian and Tamil minority Muslim groups living in Singapore. The Kampong Glam district where the beautiful mosque can be found in the centre of the Singaporean Malay community and there are several smaller and bigger mosques in the area. Please note upon entering the Kampong Glam district that more dress is more worth with respect for the local Muslim residents. Wear long trousers and either long sleeved shirt of a long scarf to hide your body if you are a woman.
The most notable feature of Sultan Mosque is its beautiful golden dome, which is simply beautiful and makes the outlook of the mosque outstanding. The huge prayer hall of the Sultan mosque looks outstandingly huge. Although there are several more mosques in Singapore, the Sultan mosque is the most popular for Muslims to pray in. There are beautiful balustrades and minarets featured on the building of the mosque, which in its outlook resembles to the Middle Eastern mosques more than that of India.
Unlike in many mosques the Sultan mosque gives chance for non-Muslims to see the inside of the mosque also in form of guided tours of course only with the whole respect of the required dressing codes which doesn’t let enter anyone with bare foot and unhidden arms. If you want to enter the mosque alone, you can do that every day from 9 am to 12.45 in the morning and from 2 pm to 4 pm in the afternoon but pre-booking in this case too is required. Do not miss the chance to see biggest and most beautiful mosque of Singapore.