Imam

During the adhan, Muslims should stop and listen. This is what is said in the adhan; the first phrase is said four times and the rest twice. Allahu Akbar – God is Great. Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah – I bear witness that there is no god except the One God.

Ibadah (Arabic: عبادة‎, ‘ibādah, also spelled ibada) is an Arabic word meaning service or servitude. In Islam, ibadah is usually translated as “worship”, and ibadat—the plural form of ibadah—refers to Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) of Muslim religious rituals.

The minbar is a pulpit in the form of a staircase on which the prayer leader (imam) stands when delivering a sermon after Friday prayer. The pulpit is usually situated to the right of the mihrab and is often made of elaborately carved wood or stone (fig. 3). A minaret is a tall tower attached or adjacent to a mosque.

A sahn (Arabic: صَحْن‎, ṣaḥn), is a courtyard in Islamic architecture, especially the formal courtyard of a mosque. Most traditional mosques have a large central sahn, which is surrounded by a riwaq or arcade on all sides. In traditional Islamic design, residences and neighborhoods can have private sahn courtyards.

The minbar is symbolically the seat of the imam who leads prayers in the mosque and delivers sermons. The minbar is located to the right of the mihrab, a niche in the far wall of the mosque which symbolizes the direction of prayer (i.e. towards Mecca).

The simplest mosque would be a prayer room with a wall marked with a “mihrab” – a niche indicating the direction of Mecca, which Muslims should face when praying. A typical mosque also includes a minaret, a dome and a place to wash before prayers. Each feature has its own significance.

Near the Minbar stands a roofed niche called the Mihrab. This nook indicates the direction of the Ka’aba, the cube-shaped building in Mecca that is the most sacred site in Islam. All mosques are built facing the Ka’aba, and Muslims should always face in this direction while praying.

Mihrab, Arabic miḥrāb, prayer niche in the qiblah wall (that facing Mecca) of a mosque; mihrabs vary in size but are usually ornately decorated.

It is the holiest of Muslim cities. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was born in Mecca, and it is toward this religious centre that Muslims turn five times daily in prayer (see qiblah). All devout and able Muslims attempt a hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca at least once in their lifetime.

During the first century of Islam, provincial governors also came to use the minbar, from which they made speeches and heard petitions, primarily in their capacity as rulers.

While not a ritual requirement like the mihrab, a dome does possess significance within the mosque—as a symbolic representation of the vault of heaven. Because it is the directional focus of prayer, the qibla wall, with its mihrab and minbar, is often the most ornately decorated area of a mosque.

A mosque is a place where Muslims worship. The word mosque comes from the Arabic word masjid. A larger, ‘collective’, mosque is called a masjid jāmi.

Buckminster Fuller

Domes and tent-canopies were associated with the heavens in Ancient Persia and the Hellenistic-Roman world. A dome over a square base reflected the geometric symbolism of those shapes. The circle represented perfection, eternity, and the heavens.

Dome Synonyms – WordHippo Thesaurus….What is another word for dome?

“The dome is, of course, a cosmic symbol in every religious tradition; and symbolically, in Islam the dome represents the vault of heaven in the same way as the garden prefigures Paradise,” wrote James Dickie in his book “Allah and Eternity: Mosques, Madrasas and Tombs.”

Eleven states have domes covered with gold leaf on the capitol building. They are Colorado,Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming. The gilded domes of Iowa and Georgia are the largest.

Virginia State Capitol

Louisiana State Capitol

Atlanta – Georgia’s state capitol, built in 1889, first had its dome gilded (covered with very thin gold called “gold leaf”) in 1958. They used 20 ounces of gold for the project (donated by people from around the state). At today’s gold prices, that’s over $30,000!

Thereafter, the gold was sent to Philadelphia, where it was milled into gold leaf 1/5,000th of an inch thick, or about the thickness of a piece of tinfoil used to wrap chewing gum.

ATLANTA

right whales

Eubalaena japonica

In late summer, watch for transient orcas in the Strait of Georgia waters, around the Gulf Islands, and the San Juan Islands.

The North Atlantic right whale – the official marine mammal of the state of Georgia – is now one of the most endangered whales in the world.