The Great Mosque of Touba, Senegal

Public Domain Photo: The Great Mosque of Touba, Senegal

The Great Mosque of Touba is located at the heart of the Mouride holy city of Touba in central Senegal. The Great Mosque, the place where Aamadu Bàmba Mbàkke, the founder of the Mouride Brotherhood, lies buried, is purported to be one of the largest in Africa. The Mouride Brotherhood is a large Islamic Sufi order most prominent in Senegal and The Gambia, with headquarters in the holy city of Touba.

Completed in 1963, the mosque has five minarets and three large domes. The mosque's 87-metre (285 ft) high central minaret, called Lamp Fall, is one of Senegal's most famous monuments. The name Lamp Fall is in reference to Sheikh Ibrahima Fall, one of Bamba's most influential disciples. The Mosque is open only to Muslims.

Al-Masjid al-Ḥaram, The Sacred Mosque in Mecca

Public Domain Photo: Modern buildings rise over Al-Masjid al-Ḥaram, photo by Meshal Obeidallah, Al Qassim Province, Saudi Arabia, taken on May 23, 2006, photo dimension: 1600x1200 pixels, size 366 KB.

Al-Masjid al-Ḥaram (The Sacred Mosque), located in the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is Islam's holiest place and the largest mosque in the world. The mosque surrounds the Kaaba, the place which Muslims worldwide turn towards while offering their daily prayers. Also known as the Grand Mosque, it can accommodate up to four million Muslim worshipers during the Hajj period, one of the largest annual gatherings of people in the world.

Noah in Islam

Image: Detail from a 16th century Mogul miniature painting giving a Moslem interpretation of Noah and the Flood.

Noah (Nuh or Nooh) is a prophet in the Qur'an, and there is an entire sura narrating the story of Noah. In Islam, Noah is considered among the five strong-willed messengers of God, the others being Ibrahim, Musa, Isa and Muhammad. Noah was a faithful messenger of Allah, and had firm belief in Allah, and he preached Islam for about 950 years.

He used to warn the people of the doom that was imminent because they were wrong-doers and did not obey Allah, and they were worshiping idols for almost a thousand years. He advised people to serve Allah, and that nobody but Allah could save them from the great deluge (flood).

Allah commanded Noah to build Noah's Ark (a ship). While Noah was building the ship, the chieftains passed him and mocked at him. Upon its completion, the ship was loaded with all the species of animals and Noah's own family. The people, including a son of Noah, who disregarded the message of Noah, drowned in the deluge. The final resting place of Noah's Ark is referred to as Mt. Judi (in Turkey).

Adam and Eve in Islamic tradition

Image: Painting (1294/99) from Manafi al-Hayawan (The Useful Animals), depicting Adam and Eve, from Maragh in Mongolian Iran by Abu Said Ubaud Allah Ibn Bakhitshu.

According to the Qur’an, Adam first ate the forbidden fruit, followed by Eve (Hawwa), for which God later forgave them and sent them to earth as God’s representatives. Nevertheless, Adam was a prophet, and according to the Islamic traditions prophets are sinless.

The early Islamic commentator Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari records that to create Adam, God sent Gabriel (Jibril) and Michael (Mika'il) to fetch clay from the earth. But the earth resented that they came to deform it and the angels returned empty-handed. God responded by sending the Angel of Death who took clay from all regions, which provides an explanation for different looks of different races of humans.

A Prophetic Hadith recalls that after leaving Eden, Adam descended in India whereas Eve descended in Jeddah. They searched for each other, and finally found each other at the Plain of Arafat (near Mecca) which means recognition.

A Yemeni doctor examines an infant

Photo: A female physician in the Republic of Yemen examines an infant in a USAID-sponsored health care clinic, photo (2006) by Ben Barber (USAID). Over the past several fiscal years, Yemen has received on average between $20 and $25 million annually in total U.S. foreign aid.

Muslims were in fact the first to employ women in hospitals, as it was necessary due to the segregation between male and female patients in Islamic hospitals. A unique feature of medieval Muslim hospitals was the role of female staff, including female nurses. Muslim hospitals were also the first to employ female physicians, the most famous being two female physicians from the Banu Zuhr family who served the Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur in the 12th century AD. Later in the 15th century, female surgeons were illustrated for the first time in Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu's Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery).

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; Jesus’ birthplace

Photo: The Silver Star marks the place where Jesus Christ was born according to Christian tradition. The site is located in Bethlehem, precisely in the cave under the Church of the Nativity.

The Church of the Nativity is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. The structure is built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth, and it is considered sacred by followers of both Christianity and Islam.

Wikipedia states about Jesus in Islam, "In Islam, Jesus is considered a Messenger of God who had been sent to guide the People of Israel with a new scripture. The Quran, believed by Muslims to be God's final revelation, mentions Jesus 25 times. It states that Jesus was born to Mary (Maryam) as the result of virginal conception, a miraculous event which occurred by the decree of God (Allah). To aid him in his quest, Jesus was given the ability to perform miracles, all by the permission of God. According to Islamic texts, Jesus was neither killed nor crucified, but rather he was raised alive up to heaven. Islamic traditions (but not Quran) narrate that he will return to Earth near the Day of Judgment to restore justice and defeat "the false messiah", also known as the Antichrist. Like all prophets in Islam, Jesus is considered to have been a Muslim, as he preached for people to adopt the straight path in submission to God's will. Islam rejects that Jesus was God incarnate or the son of God, stating that he was a mortal man who, like other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God's message. Islamic texts forbid the association of partners with God, emphasizing the notion of God's divine oneness. Numerous titles are given to Jesus in the Quran, such as al-Massif (the messiah; the anointed one), although it does not correspond with the meaning accrued in Christian belief. Jesus is seen in Islam as a precursor to Muhammad, and is believed by Muslims to have foretold the latter's coming".