When my heart was hardened
and my courses constrained
I made my hope a stairway
to Your forgiveness
My sin burdened me heavily,
but when I measured it
by Your forgiveness
Lord,
Your forgiveness was the greater.
-Imam al-Shafi', in his last days on Earth
"The interior of this mosque is all wood. The roof was built with an opening to allow water and snow to collect in the pit in the floor and keep the humidity at a wood-favoring level. Imagine worshiping in here as the snow falls in. I can barely imagine how beautiful it must have been."
The Prophet said that women totally dominate men of intellect and possessors of hearts. But ignorant men dominate women, for they are shackled by an animal ferocity. They have no kindness, gentleness or love, since animality dominates their nature. Love and kindness are human attributes; anger and sensuality belong to the animals. She is the radiance of God, she is not your beloved. She is a creator - you could say that she is not created.
- Jalal al-Din Rumi, 13th Century Afghan mystic
From Cambridge scholar T. J. Winter:
In China, mosques look very like traditional Chinese garden-temples, except that there is a prayer hall without idols, and the calligraphy is Qur'anic. In some of the most beautiful, you will find, as you enter, the following words in Chinese inscribed on a tablet:
Sages have one mind and the same truth. In all parts of the world, sages arise who possess this uniformity of mind and truth. Muhammad, the Great Sage of the West, lived in Arabia long after Confucius, the Sage of China. Though separated by ages and countries, they had the same mind and Truth.
"The sign, in Portuguese, reads: 'Ruins of the first mosque constructed in our country.' It was probably built in the 14 or 15 hundreds on Mozambique Island off the coast of northerm Mozambique. The water in the background is the Indian ocean, and the man is doing his ceremonial washing before prayers..."
