King Abdullah Masjid

Our first visit (other than Shwarma World, more on that later) on our recent wildly successful student trip to Jordan (seriously, I've never led a trip where the students were more uniformly happy and engaged every single day) was to the King Abdullah Masjid (masjid usually gets transformed into mosque) in downtown Amman. As we've discussed before, in most Muslim countries there is at least one masjid which is set aside for non-Muslims to visit during non-prayer times.  Our little masjid here in Vermont, the Islamic Society of Vermont, being very Vermonty, also happily welcomes people to visit during Friday Jummah prayer.  In Jordan the masjid where non-Muslims visit is the beautiful King Abdullah Masjid, and we stopped there on our way downtown on our first full day in country.  I've been in many masjids, but in many ways the King Abdullah Masjid has remained my favorite.  I suppose it relates, naturally, to the fact that Jordan is my favorite place, and thus it seems like a fitting symbol of that love.  It's also the first, I think, masjid that I ever entered.  Plus, I just think it has a lovely balance between soaring beauty and also essential simplicity.  I liked the Sheikh Zayed Masjid in Abu Dhabi, and part of that also relates to the fact that I lived there, but it's also so insanely ornate (it is in the UAE after all) that I find it distracting.  The students really enjoyed the visit, and the serenity of the experience - and how graciously they were welcomed by everyone - set a nice tone for the trip.  The faith and the country were not what the western media and popular culture told them they would be.

The exterior of the King Abdullah Masjid.  It's a large masjid, although not massive, and it has a very fine small museum attached to it with models of other masjids and also Qurans.

And right across the street is a massive Christian church, which also gave the students a sense of the religious complexity of the country and the region.

The inside of the masjid.  Yes, it's beautiful, but also in many ways it's very understated.  After the students finished looking around I was able to spirit myself back in and pray.  I always do my best to separate my personal faith from my classes and from these trips, so it's always wonderful when I get a chance to visit a masjid for a little private time.