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Al-Sahlah Mosque

The Al-Sahlah Mosque is one of the primary significant mosques in the city of Kufa, Iraq, and is one of the best-known Islamic mosques built in the first/seventh century by some Arab tribes of Kufa, about two kilometres northwest of the Great Mosque of Kufa. The mosque is of great importance to Shia Muslims, and it is believed that the mosque was initially established in Kufa as a neighbourhood mosque for the followers of Ali, the early members of the Shia. The mosque is also said to be the future home of the Twelfth Shia Imam, Hujjat-Allah al-Mahdi.

The geometrical shape of al-Sahla Mosque is approximately rectangular, with 140 meters of length, 125 meters of width, and an area of over 17,500 square meters. The courtyard of the mosque has a wall of twenty-two meters tall. In each of the wall's four sides, there are semicircular towers. In the middle of the eastern side of the wall, there is a minaret with thirty meters of height. The main gate of the mosque is in the middle of the eastern side adjacent to this minaret. Al-Sahla Mosque has three doors and a relatively tall minaret which was reconstructed in 1378/1958. A new Sahn was constructed, named "The Sahn of Sayyidah Nargis", which was opened in July 2013.

This mosque is revered for the reasons mentioned in the narrations of the Twelver Shia belief:

• This mosque is where the twelfth Imam, Hujjat-Allah al-Mahdi, will reside upon his return.

• This mosque served as a home for the Prophets Ibrahim (Abraham), Idris (Enoch), and Khidr.

• Every Prophet is said to have established prayers within this mosque. 

• Establishing two Rakats of Islamic Prayer in this mosque can grant a person safety and protection for an entire year.

• The trumpet announcing the Day of Judgement will be blown from this mosque. 

• Seventy thousand people will be resurrected here according to narrations, and enter Heaven without questioning.

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• The first Shia Imam, Ali ibn Abi Talib has also stated that, "No anguished person goes to this mosque, prays in it, and supplicates to God, without God relieving him of his grief and granting him his request."