Enez Hagia Sophia Mosque rejoins with its community

Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş, President of Religious Affairs, reopened the Enez Hagia Sophia Mosque for worship, which had been restored by the Directorate General of Foundations.

The historical mosque, which was converted into a mosque following the conquest of Enez by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror and became unserviceable due to earthquakes that occurred in the following years, rejoined with its community after 56 years with the Friday prayer established by President of Religious Affairs Erbaş.

President Erbaş stated at the opening ceremony held in the Enez district of the border town Edirne, which had served as the Ottoman Empire’s capital for many years, that Islamic civilization puts mosques into the center of life and added: When the Messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad Mustafa (saw) immigrated from Makkah al-Mukarramah to Yathrib, the first thing he did in order to turn the Yathrib into Madinah al-Munawwarah, namely enlightened city, was to build the al-Masjid an-Nabawi. In other words, he built a mosque in Yathrib. With that mosque, Yathrib became Madinah al-Munavarah. He repurposed the mosque as a school.”

Pointing out that the companions who were trained in Suffah by Prophet Muhammad (saw) and spread Islam by building mosques all over the world, President Erbaş continued: “Here we are staying on the course of our ancestors. As in the Seljuq and Ottoman periods, today we have mosques in every district, village, and quarter of the Republic of Türkiye, alhamdulillah. With our 90.000 mosques, we are making a significant effort to facilitate our people's worship and contribute to their education.

Saying “Our mosques is our title deeds,” President Erbaş continued his words as below:

"We went to the Balkans a few months ago. Our hearts skip a beat whenever we see a minaret. We feel happy and blessed whenever we see a mosque or a minaret. We are currently working on reopening our Enez Hagia Sophia Mosque for communal worship. May Allah the Exalted (swt) bless it, and may Allah (swt) let this conduce to goodness. We have such a great unity and solidarity that we all, as institutions, are here. Since this work belongs to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism General Directorate of Foundations, our General Director has actually been taking care of this work for 5-6 years. Our Deputy Minister Ahmet Misbah Demircan, our Governor, our District Governor, our office of mufti have made their efforts without sparing their work time and here Allah the Exalted (swt) let us experience the pride of opening another Hagia Sophia Mosque hand in hand in this way. Praise be to Allah (swt).May Allah the Exalted (swt) never leave our minarets without the calls of adhan and the flagpole without our flag. May Allah (swt) protect us from all kinds of accident, trouble, earthquake and disaster. “

Following the du’a that President Erbaş invoked at the end of his speech, the opening was carried out.

Governor of Edirne Ekrem Canalp, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Ahmet Misbah Demircan, General Manager of Foundations Burhan Ersoy, Mufti of Edirne Alettin bozkurt and many guests attended the opening ceremony.