They come by thousand by the thousands to pray and breakfast. Each night of Ramadan tens of thousands of faithful descends on Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi. The mosque provides free food for everyone. Each tent can accommodate more than 1,000 people. Still, there’s overflow. Many here are far from home. The mosque provides an important space for them to gather and eat.
Following iftar, and as the crowds dissipate from the mosque, many Muslims will choose to meet again for suhoor – or the last “pre-dawn meal” – before the sun rises around 5:40am.
After which, another day of contemplation, praying and fasting awaits, before the moon once again emerges with Maghreb prayers as night falls on Abu Dhabi.
The ingredients required to make the meals comprise of ten tonnes of rice, seven tonnes of chicken and ten tonnes of vegetables.
To feed up to 30,000 people every night, iftars at the Grand Mosque take six months of planning, involving around 400 chefs and almost 500 service staff
