Suleymaniye's mosque

By Sa'ad Abdul Majid, IOL Correspondent

ISTANBUL, October 29 (IslamOnline.net) – With the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, mosques take the breath away with their hanging lights, festoons and distinctive ensembles of towering minarets, which light up the sky of Turkey's largest city.

"Welcome Ramadan…Welcome the most precious of all months," reads one of the beaming ribbons decorating the minarets, which come in various shapes.

Shortly after breaking their dawn-to-dusk fast, Istanbul streets are teeming with men, women and children making their way to the mosques to perform the Night Prayer and Tarawih.

They are keen on going out early enough to find a foothold in the city's spacious mosques. Some come on foot and others by their cars.

Turkey's religious authority urged Iftaa houses across the country to set the date of Tarawih prayers in accordance with weather conditions and bear in mind time differences between eastern and western cities.

The Blue Mosque

As a majority of Turks follow Abu Hanifa school, they perform 21 ra'kahs of Tarawih, including two rak'ahs of as-Shafa prayer and one rak'ah of witr.

"I prayed that Allah Almighty will support our Muslim brothers with His victory worldwide, defeat our enemies and make us stand united before the successive campaigns targeting Islam," Hussein Faroul, imam of Yeni Cami, told IslamOnline.net.

Soliman Ibrahim, imam of Suleymaniye mosque, told IOL that he prayed for his Muslim brothers as well "since Ramadan is a golden opportunity for all of us to supplicate to Allah. We are indeed in a dire need for His help."

Among time-honored Ottoman mosques that draw droves of worshippers are Sultanahmet (The Blue Mosque), Suleymaniye, Eyup, Fatih (the Conqueror), Yeni Cami (New Mosque), Dolmabahce Mosque and Zeyrek Mosque.

Other mosques in this northern Turkish city are: Nuruosmaniye, Mihrimah, Arap, Atik Ali Pasa, Beylerbeyi, Hirka-i Serif, Kalenderhane, Kilic Ali Pasa, Laleli, Mahmud Pasa, Mihrimah Sultan, Nusretiye, Rüstem Pasa,  Sokullu Pasa, Sultan Selim, Sehzade and Valide.