Book a mosque tour
Come inside, look around, and ask whatever you have been wondering about. You can also take a free Qur’an home afterwards. Visiting during Ramadan? See the Ramadan experience. If you would like some background first, start with what Islam actually teaches. The tour is free, most visits run about forty five minutes to an hour, and nobody will push you toward anything. It is one of three ways to explore Islam in Malaysia.
What happens on a tour
One of our guides meets you at the entrance and walks you through the building. You will see the prayer hall, and we explain what the space is for and what happens inside it during the day.
Most of the time is left for your questions. People ask about prayer, about the Qur’an, about women in Islam, about why the building looks the way it does. No question is treated as rude, and you will not be asked to agree with anything.
Thirty minutes is the shortest we run, for visitors on a tight schedule. In practice most tours settle at forty five minutes to an hour, because that is how long the questions usually last.
Nothing is scripted. Our guides are taught to build their own explanation rather than recite a fixed text, which is why no two tours are quite the same and why yours will follow whatever you happen to be curious about.
Where and when
We run tours at five mosques. We meet you there at the time you choose.
At Masjid Wilayah our guides are registered volunteers with the Mosque Tour Programme, and at Masjid Negara with the Mosque Tour Guide programme. You are met by someone the mosque knows. Muslims who would like to guide can join our mosque tour training.
Kuala Lumpur
- Masjid Wilayah
- Masjid Negara
- Masjid India
Melaka
- Masjid Kampung Kling
- Masjid Selat
Tours run from 9am to 6pm. On Fridays the mosques close to visitors between 12pm and 3pm for the congregational prayer, so please choose a morning or a late afternoon that day.
We guide in English, French and Spanish, so tell us which you would prefer when you book.
Before you come
You do not need to dress a particular way to arrive. The mosque keeps robes for women and sarongs for men at the entrance, and you can put one on over what you are already wearing. There is more on how to visit a mosque in Kuala Lumpur if you would rather go by yourself, and we keep free Qur’an translations at the academy. Nobody is turned away for arriving in ordinary clothes.
Book at least two days ahead. That gives us time to arrange a guide who speaks your language.
Come alone or bring people. We take groups of up to ten. One or two visitors is perfectly normal and just as welcome.
It is free. There is no charge and no collection at the end.
Who comes on a mosque tour in Kuala Lumpur
People sometimes ask whether they are the right sort of person for this. Almost everybody is.
Travellers with an afternoon spare. The largest group by far. You have walked past the building, you have an hour before dinner, and you were curious anyway.
People who have lived here for years. Expats and even Malaysians who have driven past a mosque a thousand times and never gone in, usually because they assumed they were not allowed. That assumption is the single most common reason people miss this.
Couples and families. Groups of up to ten, so a family works well. Children are welcome and tend to ask the best questions.
People with a specific question. Some arrive with one thing they have wondered about for years and never had anyone to ask. Bring it. That is the most useful way to spend the hour.
Muslims too. Born Muslims sometimes join to see how the explaining is done, which is often what leads them into training as a guide later.
Questions people ask before booking
Will you try to convert me?
No. There is no moment at the end where somebody asks you to decide anything. A tour that ends with you understanding Islam better and believing exactly what you believed before is a success by our measure.
Is it really free?
Yes, and there is no collection at the end either. Nothing is sold and no donation is requested.
Can I take photographs?
The building, generally yes, and most visitors do. Ask your guide before photographing people, particularly anyone praying. The courtesy is the same as in a church or a temple.
What if I am the only person booked?
Then you get a tour to yourself. One or two visitors is completely normal and just as welcome as a group of ten.
What if I am late?
Message us. Guides usually have some flexibility, and it is far better to arrive late than to abandon the whole thing.
Can I bring children?
Yes. There is nothing on a tour unsuitable for any age, and children usually ask the questions the adults are too polite to.
I am nervous about going alone.
Very common, particularly among women travelling by themselves. Our guides at Masjid Wilayah and Masjid Negara are registered volunteers with the mosque tour programmes, so you are met by somebody the mosque knows and expects, in a public building during opening hours.
Request a tour
Fill this in and we will reply by email to confirm. For anything that is not a tour, use the contact page.
If you are not sure yet
You do not have to be considering anything to come on a tour. Curiosity is reason enough, and plenty of our visitors come simply because they walked past a building they had never been inside. And if a visit ever leads somewhere further, there is support waiting afterwards with no pressure attached.
The tour also costs us nothing to give you, which is worth saying because people assume free things come with a catch. Our guides are volunteers who do this because they enjoy it, the mosques provide the building, and nobody is paid. There is no business model to be suspicious of.