As Syakirin Mosque - A Modern Mosque Without A Minaret

The As Syakirin Mosque (Malay: Masjid As Syakirin) aka KLCC Mosque is a newly constructed mosque and is part of the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) project. Built in 1998 it is situated near the public park adjacent to the famous Petronas Twin Towers and Suria shopping Centre.

The mosque features interesting architecture of West Asia specially Uzbek design combined with a taste of East Asia and was built by Uzbekistan craftsmen using marble and granite. The mosque has intricate carvings and calligraphy on the interior walls as well as on the dome internals.

Being located in the vicinity of the park near the famous Petronas Towers, it is nicknamed 'Jewel in the Park'. Its location also makes it a tourist attraction for all those who visit the twin towers. Originally the mosque was designed to cater for a congregation of 6,000 persons but because of its popularity it was expanded and can now accommodate 11,000 persons.

Note the absence of a minaret. Strictly speaking a minaret is not religious requirement for a mosque. The earliest mosques were built without minarets but later these became a part of Islamic Architecture to provide a vantage point from which the call to prayer (adhan) was made. With advent of loudspeakers the role of minarets is now more of an adherence to a tradition as well as of a visual indication to the location of a mosque.

Image from Flickr is by nadi0

Image copied from commons.wikimedia is by Two hundred percent

Image from Flickr is by mr_fairuz

Image from Panoramio is by boujamaa

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Source of and more info: Utusan Online (English Translation)