2013-12-07

【Aiden in English】

       When Mom and I got back from Dubai International Airport and checked in Raffles Hotel, the first thing I did was to go to bed. Just as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep like a log.

       As Mom woke me up at the crack of dawn for the tour, I tumbled around for awhile and still half asleep. After a brief breakfast, we hopped onto a city tour bus to Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE where we would be seeing Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque or the Grand Mosque, which was the largest in the nation where Muslims prayed at least 5 times a day.

      When we arrived, my mouth draped open like a stone. The Grand Mosque was literally a giant palace in Arab, Persian, Mughai and Moorish style plus some modern decoration like Greek marbles, German lights, Turkish ceramics, Iranian hand knotted woven carpet, etc. The entrance was a huge overhead door that was decorated with pictures of flowers derived from the country. But that wasn't all. The doorway led to a vast courtyard that had a marble floor and huge pillars with engraved flowers. I thought that looked as cool as it could get, but the courtyard couldn't even be compared to the hall inside. Three tremendous crystal chandeliers were hanging from the domed ceiling from above. It was a mix of colors that seemed to make each other blend. If you stood under it, the crystal chandelier looked like a flower in full bloom with red petals and green outline. On the walls, there were pictures of flowers and columns covered in gold. Every time when I looked at them, the gold appeared so bright that it stood out like a hungry wolf in a herd of sheep. Now I understood why it took 545 million dollars to build this spectacular architecture in 11 years.

      As I walked on my way out, I noticed a clock on the wall that showed six different times when Muslims would pray during a day. They must be extremely dedicated about their religion because the first time Muslims had to pray was sometime around 5 O'clock in the morning. Afterwards, every 2 or 3 hours later, they had to pray again.

      Right there, I learned about the Prophets which sounded like the messenger of "Allah" because the Muslims believed that Allah gave those signs which only the Prophet could read. In addition, all Muslims were read a collection of books called the "Quran". The Quran is to the Muslims as the bible to the Christians.

      As I left the Grand Mosque, I reviewed all things I saw today. The one that intrigued me most was how similar that being a Muslim was to being a staff in a government with different levels. Some were more respected than the other and each person had to be promoted by someone else. When I thought of it this way, the Muslim was combining traditional religion and modern life as a whole.

【紅霞譯文】

       當我和媽媽離開迪拜國際機場入住萊佛士酒店時，當務之急就是睡覺。等腦袋剛躺到枕頭上，我立刻像木樁似地昏睡過去。

       天剛亮，遊覽時間將近，媽媽叫醒了我。這時我睡眼惺忪，仍然處於半迷糊狀態。簡單吃罷早餐，我們乘車前往阿拉伯聯合酋長國首都阿布扎比，重點參觀全國最大的謝赫‧扎伊德大清真寺即大清真寺，虔誠的穆斯林每天都要禱告至少五次。

       集中體現穆斯林風格的大清真寺宛若一座雄偉輝煌的宮殿，叫我驚訝得張目結舌。它借鑑本土阿拉伯、東方莫臥兒、北非摩爾式建築設計，引進了希臘漢白玉、德國水晶吊燈、土耳其瓷磚、伊朗手工編織地毯等經典裝飾藝術，將寺廟打造得富麗堂皇。入口處大門上方雕飾着充滿濃郁本地鄉間氣息的植物圖案，大門內側寬敞庭院大理石地面和圓柱上各色花卉琳琅滿目，令我嘆為觀止。寺廟主廳三個巨型水晶吊燈從圓拱形天花板倒掛下來，燦爛多彩調色考究，更叫我眼花繚亂。如果站在下面，水晶吊燈如同朵朵綻開的花蕾，紅花綠葉份外嬌艷。大清真寺牆壁用黃金鑲嵌的花卉圖案比比皆是，每次我凝神注視，閃閃發光的金子看上去像混入羊群中餓狼一般，耀眼奪目。現在我終於明白，為什麼建造這樣一座雄偉建築群要斥資五億四千五百萬大洋、耗時十一年。

       寺廟主廳里，一個標有六段不同時間的鐘表格外引人注意，這是穆斯林教徒每天祈禱的標誌。在我看來，他們一定非常虔誠執着，不然怎麼能夠堅持五點鐘早起開始禱告，隨後每二、三個小時又要頂禮膜拜。

       此時此地，我了解到信使先知“阿拉”教導所有穆斯林人篤信伊斯蘭教義——《古蘭經》，它堪稱該宗教的指路明燈，正如《聖經》被視為基督徒的法寶一樣。

       離開大清真寺時，我回首今天所見所聞，感觸最深的就是，猶如政府工作職員，穆斯林人同樣等級分明，倍受尊重的教徒社會地位也高，教徒之間彼此互相鞭策。從這個角度來說，穆斯林人將傳統宗教和現代意識兼收並蓄。