Nizamiye Masjid, often called the Nizamiye Mosque, is a mosque situated in the city of Midrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. It is often stated to be the biggest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere, occupying less than two-thirds of a hectare in a 10 hectares of land. The plans for the mosque were originally designed in Turkey, but a South African architect adapted the design to South African building standards. Construction began in October 2009 and was completed in 2012.

Construction on the mosque began in October 2009 and was completed in 2012. The basic plan of the mosque was adopted from the 16th-century Ottoman Selimiye Mosque. This mosque, located in Edirne, Turkey, was designed by Mimar Sinan. Nizamiye Masjid was scaled to the Selimiye Mosque by a ratio of 80%. Read More

The Arabic Calligraphy incorporated into this piece is Allah Hoo (Allah hu) mirrored on the top of the canvas, which is a traditional Sufi chant (Dhikr) consisting of the word for God (Arabic: الله‎ Allāh) run together three times, followed by Truth (Haqq):

Allāhu Allāhu Allāhu Haqq,

itself repeated three times over. According to Sufi tradition, this formula was introduced by Abu Bakr as he initiated the Naqshbandi tradition (Kabbani 2003 p. 87). Other Dhikrs consist of simple Allāhu Allāhurun together 400 or 600 times. The “Hoo” is due to the nominative suffix (i`rab) -u (ḍamma) being pronounced before initial vowel, as the word Allahu is run together several times: Allahu Allahu Allahu is rendered as /al:a:hual:a:hual:a:h/ (compare the phrase Allahu Akbar where the -u is also audible). In traditional Sufi chant, the length of the -u is exaggerated. As a noun phrase, the chant is interpreted as meaning “God is”. Haqq is the Arabic for “truth”, so that the full dhikr translates to “God is. God is. God is Truth.”