See inside the eco-friendly Cambridge mosque with Dr Tim Winter.
Meet your lecturer
Dr Tim Winter (Sheikh Abdul-Hakim Murad) is the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. Tim is the founder and Dean of the Cambridge Muslim College. He has translated many key Islamic texts into English, and has written books on Islamic theology, Muslim-Christian relations and political theology. Tim helped found the world’s first eco-friendly mosque, the Cambridge Central Mosque, which you can see in the video. The Cambridge Central Mosque was built with a near zero carbon footprint and can accommodate up to 1,000 worshippers.
Tim first came to Cambridge as an undergraduate, graduating from Pembroke College with a double-first in Arabic. He went on to study in Cairo, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, before returning to England to study Turkish and Persian at the University of London.
Explore further
The Egyptian Mosque lamp in the Fitzwilliam Museum dates from 1355. It would have hung from the ceiling of a mosque. It has the text ‘God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His light is as a niche, in which there is a lamp’ inscribed on it.
A 16th century copy of the Qur’an can be found in the University Library in Cambridge. It is written on very fine paper, and is exquisitely decorated with gold and other colours.
The Epistle on Logical Rules for Shams al-Din is a manuscript held in the Wren Library in Trinity College, Cambridge. It is a textbook on logic written in Arabic, and is still read by Muslims in some countries today in the course of a formal religious education. It shows how scholars try to understand their beliefs and practices in rational and logical ways.
Consider some questions
How would you describe the different features of a mosque and their symbolism in Islam?
Can you explain the importance of prophethood in Islam?
Evaluate the statement ‘Tawhid is the most important Muslim belief.’
Guidance for teachers
Download the video transcript