Performing Friday prayers in Jamia Masjid Aya Sofia after 86 years

After 86 years, Friday prayers were offered at the famous Aya Sofia Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.

On this occasion, millions of children arrived in Sofia to offer Friday prayers. It was as if the whole of Istanbul had come to pray. The prayer was preceded by a sermon and recited by the Turkish President.

After a long time, when the call to prayer was heard from the minarets of the mosque, many eyes were filled with tears and soul-stirring scenes came to be seen.

People camped outside the mosque overnight, but due to the lack of space for one and a half thousand worshipers and the lack of space in the mosque, millions of citizens prayed outside on the streets.

Turkish President Tayyab Erdogan, ministers, dignitaries and members of parliament also attended Friday.

People are flooding to Ayasofya Mosque. Such a glorious day! #Istanbul#HagiaSophia #Turkey pic.twitter.com/FaeSHRUHG5

— Selami Haktan (Eng) (@slmhktn_eng) July 24, 2020

background

Turkey's Supreme Court Council of State has decided to convert the historic Aya Sofia building in Istanbul from a museum to a mosque. Following the decision, the Turkish president announced that the mosque would be open to worshipers.

Was Sofia a church in the past? It was built in 537 during the reign of Roman Emperor Justinian I.

When the Ottoman Sultan Muhammad the Conqueror conquered Constantinople and defeated the Byzantines in 1453, he bought the church from his personal property and converted it into a mosque.

From then on, the mosque became known as 'Jami Aya Sufi' or 'Aya Sufiyya Kabir Jami Sharifi' and prayers continued there five times for five hundred years till the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Mustafa Kemal Atatرکrk overthrew the Ottoman Empire in 1935, closing the Aya Sofia Mosque for prayers and turning it into a museum.

Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of many countries, including the United States and the European Union, has criticized Turkey for rebuilding Sofia.

On the other hand, Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected all international criticism and called it an internal matter of Turkey. He said the decision was an expression of Turkey's exercise of its sovereign rights, adding that countries that did nothing to curb Islamophobia were attacking Turkey's sovereignty.