JJCMasjid #5

I had been looking forward to this opportunity since a few weeks ago, but I was so busy going to Tehran then. This week, Shahab's closed for their annual Summer break. So, I was ready for the event.

Pak Payne picked me up at Lamcy plaza at 730am that Friday morning. Ikmal and Lutfi were also there and we went to the Green City Restaurant to have breakfast. After filling our tummies with parathas, puri, tosey etc.....and a glass of teh tarik.....we started our journey. There were 10 of us.....Pak Payne, Mushil, Hasnol, KP, Lutfi, Yusri, Ikmal, Nik, Halim and me. Destinations: the masjids around Dubai.

The masjids that we visited were the Jumeirah Grand Masjid and two other small masjids in the Jumaeirah area. We perform the Friday solat in the last masjid in Jumeirah that we visited. The Khatib gave the Friday sermon (khutbah) in English, which was a great thing for me as this was the first Friday sermon that I could understand since I arrived in Dubai exactly 3 months ago.

Before Jumaat solat, we had a small lunch at a small road-side restaurant, called Iskandaron restaurant, run by a Lebanese. We had fruit juices and some freshly-baked pastries......

The next stop was the Al-Raffa masjid....interestingly, it's my Kariah masjid....it's where I bring Apit every Friday for the Friday solat. And today, I experience my first Solar Eclipse solat (Solat sunat gerhana matahari). We performed a two "raka'at" solat with four "rukuk" and it took us about 40 minutes to complete it. It was lead by an Arab Imam.

Then, we went to the Za'abeel area, to the Za'abeel Grand Masjid. It was just in front of the Guest Palace of the Syeikh of Dubai (according to Mushil). I managed to stealthily took a snap at the palace.....We performed Asar solat at the masjid.

Our last masjid was the Rashidiya Grand Masjid. We had some refreshment at Hj Faizal's house just in front of the masjid. He's a Malaysian working with the Emirates airlines. We feasted on "keropok ikan", some mini curry puff and paus (dumplings) and mandarin oranges. Our host and his family had just returned to Dubai from his holiday in Malaysia. Pak Payne's two elder children joined us there.

We performed Maghrib solat at the masjid after a "tazkirah" session (we had the session at almost every masjid that we visited).

I had offered to treat them dinner that night at my apartment and my wife had been busy preparing for it since noon. We arrived at my apartment around 815pm.....Imran, Zakaria and ZBA had already arrived with their families. Amali came alone. I called in my Malaysian neighbours who's living on the 7th floor (I told them that dinner would start after 830pm....I didn't want them to miss the opportunity of meeting other Malaysians and dinner).

Photos and write-ups can be viewed here, here and here