Grand Mosque Alshaby Kasht Bn Mhsn Alasdy Rdy Allh Nh

Close to the ancient agricultural plains east of Homs in central Syria, the Mosque of the Companion Ukkashah ibn Mihsan al Asadi, may God be pleased with him, honours a brave early believer who was among the first to embrace Islam in Mecca, who fought at Badr and Uhud, and whom the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, promised would enter paradise among the seventy thousand who enter without reckoning. The hadith describing this promise, narrated in Bukhari and Muslim, has made Ukkashah a beloved figure in the Arab conscience, remembered whenever believers seek the Prophet's intercession and the company of those who will enter paradise first.

Homs itself is an ancient city continuously peopled of the Arab world, known in classical times as Emesa, famous for its temple to the sun god El Gabal and, later, as the native city of the Roman empress Julia Domna. After the Arab conquest in 636 of the common era, Homs became an important garrison town, and the companion Khalid ibn al Walid (God be pleased with him) with him, was buried within its walls beneath a celebrated Ottoman mosque. Despite the hardships of the Syrian conflict, the city's mosques have continued to gather worshippers for the five daily prayers and the Friday congregation.

Architecturally the mosque follows a simple modern Syrian idiom, drawing softly on classical Umayyad and Ayyubid precedent: a rectangular prayer hall of dressed limestone blocks, a low central dome painted pale turquoise, a slender square minaret finished by a small finial lantern, and a modest courtyard with an ablution fountain. Inside, the floor bears patterned red and green carpet, the mihrab sunk into a deep alcove edged with carved plaster arabesque, and a wooden minbar of walnut stands to its right. Framed verses of the Qur'an with salawat for the Prophet's household decorate the surrounding walls in Thuluth and Diwani calligraphy.

The daily five, Friday sermons, tarawih through Ramadan, and commemorative gatherings for the early companions fill the mosque's calendar, keeping the memory of Ukkashah's valour alive among his Syrian admirers.