Editing Mosque (section)

===Prayer hall===
The prayer hall, also known as the ''muṣallá'' ({{langx|ar|مُصَلَّى}}), rarely has furniture; chairs and pews are generally absent from the prayer hall so as to allow as many worshipers as possible to line the room.<ref name="unitulsa">{{Cite web|url=http://www.utulsa.edu/iss/Mosque/MosqueFAQ.html |access-date=April 9, 2006 |publisher=The University of Tulsa |title=Mosque FAQ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070330202640/http://www.utulsa.edu/iss/Mosque/MosqueFAQ.html |archive-date=March 30, 2007 }}</ref> Some mosques have [[Islamic calligraphy]] and Quranic verses on the walls to create a more religious atmosphere for worshippers.<ref name="teach-islam" />

Often, a limited part of the prayer hall is sanctified formally as a ''masjid'' in the ''[[Sharia|sharīʿah]]'' sense (although the term ''masjid'' is also used for the larger mosque complex as well). Once designated, there are onerous limitations on the use of this formally designated ''masjid'', and it may not be used for any purpose other than worship; restrictions that do not necessarily apply to the rest of the prayer area, and to the rest of the mosque complex (although such uses may be restricted by the conditions of the ''[[waqf]]'' that owns the mosque).<ref name="qaSunniPathFiqhMasjid">{{Cite web|url=http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=4347&CATE=4 |title=Fiqh of Masjid & Musalla |publisher=Qa.sunnipath.com |date=2005-07-03 |access-date=2011-11-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019002051/http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=4347&CATE=4|archive-date=2011-10-19}}</ref>

In many mosques, especially the early congregational mosques, the prayer hall is built in the [[hypostyle]] form (the roof held up by a multitude of columns).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kleiner |first=Fred S. |title=Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IJrN8rDirxkC&pg=PA265 |access-date=21 February 2013 |year=2010 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-495-57355-5 |page=265}}</ref> One of the finest examples of the hypostyle-plan mosques is the [[Great Mosque of Kairouan]] in [[Tunisia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kleiner |first=Fred S. |title=Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IJrN8rDirxkC&pg=PA267 |access-date= 21 February 2013|year=2010 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-495-57355-5 |page=267}}</ref>

Usually opposite the entrance to the prayer hall is the ''[[qibla]]'' wall (the direction of [[Mecca]], and thus the direction towards which [[Muslims]] should face for prayer), the visually emphasized area inside the prayer hall. The ''qibla'' wall should, in a properly oriented mosque, be set perpendicular to a line leading to [[Mecca]], where the [[Kaaba]] is located.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Writing Signs: Fatimid Public Text |date=December 16, 1998 |last=Bierman |first=Irene A. |publisher=University of California Press |page=150 |isbn=978-0-520-20802-5}}</ref> Congregants pray in rows parallel to the qiblah wall and thus arrange themselves so they face Mecca. In the ''qibla'' wall, usually at its center, is the ''[[Mihrab|miḥrāb]]'', a niche or depression indicating the direction of Mecca. Usually the ''mihrab'' is not occupied by furniture either. A raised ''[[minbar]]'' (pulpit) is located to the right side of the ''mihrab'' for a ''[[Khatib|khaṭīb]]'' (preacher), or some other speaker, to offer a ''[[Khutbah|khuṭbah]]'' (sermon) during the ritual Friday prayers.

The ''mihrab'' serves as the location where the [[imam]] or [[mullah]] leads the five daily prayers on a regular basis.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~islamarc/WebPage1/htm_eng/index/keyword1_e.htm |access-date=April 9, 2006 |title=Terms 1: Mosque |publisher=University of Tokyo Institute of Oriental Culture |archive-date=February 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212174310/http://www.ioc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~islamarc/WebPage1/htm_eng/index/keyword1_e.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Left to the ''mihrab'', in the front left corner of the mosque, sometimes there is a ''kursu'' (Turkish: {{lang|tr|[[:wikt:tr:kürsü#Türkçe|kürsü]]}}, Bosnian: ''{{lang|bs|ćurs/ћурс}}''), a small elevated plateau (rarely with a chair or other type of seat) used for less formal preaching and speeches.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Great Mosque of Kairouan, prayer hall.jpg|Main prayer hall with hypostyle in the [[Great Mosque of Kairouan]], Tunisia
File:İstanbul 5736.jpg|[[Ottoman architecture|Ottoman-style]] prayer hall of the [[Yıldız Hamidiye Mosque]] in [[Istanbul]], Turkey
File:Wooden Village, Nishapur 1395-09-02 2281911.jpg|Wooden prayer hall of the [[Wooden Mosque]], a building which is concentrated with wood, in [[Nishapur]], Iran
File:GD-FR-Paris-Mosquée018 (2-3 size).JPG|[[Moorish Revival]] prayer hall of the [[Grand Mosque of Paris]] in [[Paris]], France
File:A picture from China every day 144.jpg|[[Chinese Islamic architecture|Chinese Islamic-style]] prayer hall of the [[Songjiang Mosque]] in [[Shanghai]], China
File:Mihrab of the Istiqlal Mosque Jakarta.jpg|[[International Style|International]] and [[New Formalism (architecture)|New Formalism-style]] prayer hall of the [[Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta|Istiqlal Mosque]] in [[Jakarta]], Indonesia
</gallery>

====Women's prayer hall====
{{Multiple image|total_width=300|image1=Зеница 20190509 164252.jpg|caption1=Stairs toward the ''maqfil''|image2=Зеница 20190509 164523.jpg|caption2=View of the ''maqfil''}}

[[Islam and gender segregation|Women who pray in mosques are separated from men]]. Their part for prayer is called ''[[Women's prayer in Islam|maqfil]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.humanrights.ge/admin/editor/uploads/pdf/angarishebi/hridc/religiur%20umciresobata%20kulturuli%20memkvidreoba-eng.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404231318/http://www.humanrights.ge/admin/editor/uploads/pdf/angarishebi/hridc/religiur%20umciresobata%20kulturuli%20memkvidreoba-eng.pdf|url-status=live|title=State of cultural heritage of religious minorities in Georgia|archive-date=2016-04-04|work=humanrights.ge|year=2016|access-date=2019-10-29}}</ref> (Bosnian: ''{{lang|bs|makfil/макфил}}''). It is located above the main prayer hall, elevated in the background as stairs-separated gallery or plateau (surface-shortened to the back relative to the bottom main part). It usually has a perforated fence at the front, through which the [[imam]] or [[mullah]] and the other male worshippers in the main hall can be partially seen.