Some of the administrators of one of the mosques consult the Shaykh regarding the lighting of the mosque and the location of the women’s prayer area within it.

The Shaykh: I mean, what did you want to say?

The questioner: Then they put us in a difficult position now.

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner: The first design we made for them: the women’s prayer area was in the side room.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner: And under the Quran house, so they said: the area has a large number of worshippers and men and so on, so we want to utilize...

The Shaykh: Also, I spoke with them about this matter: that the women do not see the imam or the congregation at all, they said to me: did you suggest a television or a mirror?

The questioner: But this is after we consulted them, we originally, today Abu Diya came to me and I requested the original plan that we presented to them, it was under the Quran house, and the side room was for the women, and they objected saying no, we do not need the side room!!

The Shaykh: By Allah, I told him: leave the side room for the women, this was yesterday...

The questioner: This was the initial design, even the door of the staircase was not from here, the door of the staircase was external and had an entrance from the street independent of the men’s entrance.

The Shaykh: It must be like this.

The questioner: Okay, now what is the obstacle to keeping the side room for the women?!

Another questioner: Two points that may be important: meaning, we are now in the lighting that does not cost much in electricity, meaning the amount of electricity is of two types: either this type of fluorescent, or the types that have a transformer and are on a lower number of volts, but their cost and difficulty are originally high, because they all need transformers, these fluorescent lamps, most of what is available in our countries, tend toward the blue color, meaning they absorb the red color present in things, so they give a usually pale color, so we in most public facilities when we put these, we complete them with lighting from ordinary lamps, because the ordinary lamp has strong red light in it, and the blue color is little, so the presence of both together gives us a color closer to the natural color, meaning a color closer, one sees the color of things in their natural form, meaning the color of people usually appears more pale, but when the lighting is from these, so I wanted to ask if a mosque of this color, even if the cost of electricity it draws is a bit more, is it possible for us or not possible for the sake of achieving this purpose?! And the second question.

The Shaykh: Let’s stick to the first one for now.

The questioner: Hmm.

The Shaykh: Okay, now this lamp you see here is not the one you are talking about?

The questioner: No, it is similar.

The Shaykh: Okay, what is in it? Does it need an addition?

The questioner: No, but the spaces are large!

The Shaykh: Be patient, does it need an addition?

The questioner: It needs it.

The Shaykh: It?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh: Are you making an addition?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh: Then it does not need it.

The questioner: No, I am because here is a workplace, not a place where you look.

The Shaykh: First of all, you are richer there than here, here you need more lighting than there, so if this natural lighting has this color, and you are not in need here of that additional lighting that you called, because you are always doing precise work, okay, this mosque is in addition to the mosque, especially if you install many lights, so why this addition?

The questioner: We in the mosque will not have this level of lighting strength certainly, meaning, we are not in need of precise work in the mosque, so the level of lighting will be weaker than this.

The Shaykh: I am from my argument, may Allah reward you.

The questioner: Correct.

The Shaykh: All right.

The questioner: I am talking about the colors that it reflects, even in our houses, this is very annoying in the houses, meaning we do not use it in the houses.

The Shaykh: For what, Professor? Now do you know what happens with us: we put, for example, a lamp whose power is, let’s assume, one hundred, it will be strong, so to reduce it, we put what, this addition, no, we originally, instead of putting it one hundred, we put it fifty, we put it forty and so on, the goal of the mosque is truly, if the Muslim is like this, free from being affected by the corrupt environment and far from the Sunnah, the intended thing in the mosque is that the worshippers see each other, and that they distinguish the movements of the imam from near and from far, okay, if you put in this large, wide mosque, how many bridges do you have now, you did not notice, how many bridges are in it?

The questioner: Five.

The Shaykh: Five, okay, if you put five lamps, how much is their power, sixty or more?

The questioner: These are forty.

The Shaykh: Forty, if you put in every bridge five, five bridges and five lamps, and we tried and found it was not sufficient, we put one next to this one.

The questioner: Do not be surprised, our Shaykh, there is no need to try, the electrical engineer will calculate it with complete precision.

The Shaykh: Regarding the solution to the lighting problem for the readers, if it is little, yes?

The questioner: It is annoying.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner: Meaning, it may be beautiful for the one coming from above it.

The Shaykh : That is it.

The questioner: As for the person opposite it there.

The Shaykh: I see that it should be of this type, long and with the previous detail, it is lit when needed.

The questioner : Very good.

The Shaykh: But these side lights, I understood from him that they are lights, meaning, closest to being for decoration and not for lighting?!

The questioner: No, look, the mosque here has nothing put for decoration, in the lighting calculations, in the lighting calculations, but what was the engineer calculating?!

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner: For example, he was calculating.

Another questioner: Then there is no obstacle to it.

The Shaykh: Who will be directing this direction in these narrow limits, when we want to do this operation, we bring someone from outside and he suffices us.