The first brick for the foundation of the proposed grand mosque in Ayodhya has arrived in Mumbai after a consecration pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
The brick, unveiled on October 12, 2023 at a function of All India Rabta-e-Masjid, was taken to Mecca by Arfat Shaikh, the chairman of the Masjid Muhammad Bin Abdullah Development Committee and a trustee of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation.
The brick was given a ‘gusl’ (wash) with holy Zamzam water in Mecca and in perfumes in Medina before it was brought back to India.
The brick, made of black soil and bearing ‘aayats’ (couplets from the holy Quran) in gold, will be taken to Ayodhya after Ramadan and Eid-Ul-Fitr celebrations in April.
The Masjid Mohammed Bin Abdullah mosque—named in honour of the Prophet Mohammed—is coming up in Dhannipur village, around 25 km from the Ram Mandir, in Ayodhya.
“The new masjid and the institution around it would be an important centre of prayer and healing in India… Its construction and renovation, by the grace of Allah, will be magnificent, majestic, and would prove to be as aesthetically important a monument as the Taj Mahal globally,” Shaikh was quoted as saying by IANS.
This would be the first masjid in India to be built on the basis of the five tenets of Islam, he added.
“Also, the world’s largest copy of the Holy Quran, which will be 21 feet long, will be placed in this mosque,” Shaikh further told the news agency.
