Only hotel in Malaysia to hold Friday prayers ...

It might still be the only hotel in Malaysia that holds Friday prayers.
But going by the large congregation today, the De Palma Hotel in Ampang would need to expand its surau to cater for the growing numbers.
Located on the third floor, the surau now receives 1,000 people each week for Friday prayers.

Apart from hotel guests and staff, those who perform Friday prayers at the surau are workers from offices and business premises within its vicinity, staff of foreign embassies and a nearby hospital and residents from surrounding areas.
A hotel staff says if not for the public holiday today, the congregation would have been larger.
In October 2008, the De Palma Hotel Ampang became the first hotel in the country to be given the nod to hold Friday prayers at its surau – Surau Nurul Hikmah.
The surau has won the "Best Surau award in the hotel industry" given by the Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association.
The hotel employs four full-time imam for the surau. Apart from the five obligatory daily prayers, they handle various religious programmes including tazkirah during lunch time for twice a month, free Quran-reading classes and also tahlil functions.
The surau holds tazkirah, tarawih and Qiamullail functions during the fasting month of Ramadan.
News reports have highlighted about the hotel rebranding itself as a fully syariah compliant business entity.
Some of these include changing of staff uniform for Muslim ladies by subscribing to the appropriate dress code.
The hotel's meeting packages are also syariah-compliant. Meetings start with zam zam water, dates and raisins as snacks.
Meals are prepared in moderation, according to syariah rules.


A hotel staff helps to fold prayer mats after Friday prayers today.