Under the Same Dome, a Grand Embrace

My holiday, my holiday
You celebrate the holiday with your beloved now
Praise and glory, praise and glory
My heart has made this holiday with my beloved^【1】

^{Fatma Hatun Camii Şerifi (Photo: Muhammet Emin Bakır)}

The rush of life, the endless noise of the modern world, and the cold screens that distance us from one another... Throughout the year we retreat into our shells, becoming isolated even amidst crowds, and sometimes growing indifferent to what happens around us. Yet there are mornings when all these walls of alienation collapse in a single place and through a single voice. On a holiday morning, beneath that vast mosque dome.

Our mosques are not merely architectural structures of stone and brick. They are our shared gathering places, where our social memory and above all our unity and togetherness are strengthened. Especially on holiday mornings, when you step through the mosque door for the morning prayer, you do not simply enter a physical space—you step into an entirely different spiritual climate, a sea of peace. As the morning light pours down upon us, nothing else evokes such profound serenity as standing shoulder to shoulder in rows.

The holiday atmosphere we begin to feel with the morning prayer reaches its peak during the holiday prayer, when the takbirs rising from the pulpit and the muezzin’s gallery begin to echo through the dome. This thunderous sound is not an ordinary melody; it is the collective voice of a civilization spanning thousands of years. As these takbirs ripple outward, an invisible bridge of the heart forms between you and the person standing beside you, perhaps someone whose name you do not even know.

Words are reduced to one: Allahu Akbar. Hearts begin to beat in unison. Where voices merge, souls embrace.

^{Holiday is about making the heart happy. (Photo: Muhammet Emin Bakır)}

At this very moment, some of us join the takbirs with joy, while others are struck by memories of grudges, resentments, or loved ones they have lost. Yet to soothe the heart, it is enough simply to feel this moment in surrender, without drowning in life’s accounting or its shortcomings. For who knows? This holiday may be, for some of us, the last one we will ever witness with our worldly eyes.

As the prayer ends, the mosque’s solemn silence gives way to an indescribable joy. The rows disperse, but hearts grow closer. In those moments, when worldly ranks, titles, wealth, and poverty are left outside the mosque door, we embrace each other, remembering only that we are all humble servants of God. The shared smile between strangers who have never met, the warmth of extended hands, the sincere holiday greetings offered shoulder to shoulder—these moments rekindle in our hearts the noble sense of “we” that is fading from our age. When the mosque’s grandeur blends with the holiday’s exuberance and the joyful chatter of children, a profound healing emerges, embracing every stratum of society.

How blessed are those who listen to that voice, how blessed are those who are part of that great embrace beneath the same dome...