Mumbai will send the first brick for the construction of the mosque on the land given in place of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in February 2024.
As preparations gather steam for the inauguration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya next month, the group in charge of building the mosque has stated that Pirs, or holy men, will carry bricks from all over the country to the mosque’s construction site in Dhannipur village outside Ayodhya. The group has announced that the new mosque will be called Masjid Muhammad Bin Abdullah, named after the prophet. A descendant of Sufi saint Sarkar Peer Adil, whose tomb is in Bijapur (Vijayapura), Karnataka, is expected to carry the first bricks from Mumbai for the foundation of the mosque.
Haji Arafat Shaikh, the chairman of the Masjid Muhammad Bin Abdullah Development Committee, mentioned that the old design for the mosque has been discarded and replaced by a building in a more traditional style. Shaikh said, "The old designs were of an egg-shaped structure and were not liked by the community."
Five Minarets for Five Pillars, Donation QR Code Coming Soon
Unlike traditional mosque designs that feature two or four minarets, the Ayodhya mosque will have five minarets representing the five pillars of Islam. A QR code will soon be released to seek donations for the construction.
The five-acre plot was given by the Uttar Pradesh government following directions in the Supreme Court’s order on November 9, 2019, which allocated the entire plot where the Babri Masjid was located to the Hindu petitioners. The Sunni Central Wakf Board was tasked with the responsibility of constructing the mosque.
Delay in Ayodhya Mosque Construction Sparks Criticism
As the Ram Temple nears completion, Muslim organizations have been highlighting the Wakf Board's failure to construct the mosque.
The Ram temple will be inaugurated next month, but the Sunni Central Wakf Board has not erected even a single brick on the land allocated to the Muslim community," said Maulana Shahbuddin Razvi Barelvi, president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, representing the Barelvi sect of Sunni Islam. "It is sad that not a single brick has been laid on the land. If the Wakf Board did not want to construct the mosque, they should have given it to the Muslim community in Dhannipur; they had volunteered to build the mosque.
Replying to the complaints of delay, Shaikh said, “I do not know why no work was done at the mosque site. Jaffar Faqooqi (of the UP Sunni Wakf Board) met me some time back and asked me to take up the responsibility of building the mosque. The project is now moving forward.
