Associazione Culturale Al النور

Serving the growing Muslim community of the great Italian city of Milan, the Associazione Culturale Al Nur offers its worshippers a welcoming centre of worship, learning, and cultural exchange in the heart of Lombardy, the economic engine of the Italian Republic. The Arabic name al Nur, meaning the Light, echoes the ninety ninth name of God and evokes one of the most beautiful chapters of the Holy Qur'an, Surat al Nur, whose verses describe the radiant niche of divine guidance in imagery of lamps and olive trees that has nourished the imagination of Muslim poets and artists for more than fourteen centuries of prayer.

Milan rose to prominence during the Roman imperial period, served as the capital of the western Roman empire in the late fourth century, and later flourished as a centre of Renaissance art, Lombard banking, and Renaissance scholarship. During the twentieth century the city welcomed waves of immigrants from southern Italy, the Balkans, and later from the Arab lands, Bangladesh, Pakistan, north Africa, and west Africa. These communities together now form a diverse Muslim population which numbers in the hundreds of thousands across Lombardy and has founded more than one hundred houses of prayer in the region.

The Al Nur centre houses a spacious prayer hall aligned with the qiblah, classrooms for Arabic and Qur'anic instruction, a community kitchen that prepares iftar meals during Ramadan, and a small library containing works of tafsir, the seerah of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family, and collections of noble hadith. Jumu'ah draws Egyptian pharmacists, Moroccan electricians, Senegalese street vendors, Bangladeshi waiters, Pakistani engineers, and Italian converts into a single multilingual congregation whose khutbah is delivered partly in Italian and partly in Arabic.

Worshippers and visitors will find on this page accurate daily prayer times for Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha at the Milan centre, along with its address, a helpful location map, and practical notes that assist residents of Lombardy, professionals attending the great business fairs of the city, art lovers visiting the Duomo and La Scala, and travellers from every Muslim background to share in the warm and cosmopolitan congregational worship offered here throughout the year.