Surabaya (pronounced [surəˈbaja]) (formerly Soerabaia or Surabaja) is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million (5.6 million in the metropolitan area), and the capital of the province of East Java. It is located on the northern shore of eastern Java at the mouth of the Mas River and along the edge of the Madura Strait.
To Indonesians, it is known as "the city of heroes" due to the importance of the Battle of Surabaya in galvanizing Indonesian and international support for Indonesian independence during the Indonesian National Revolution.
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French (mosquée), from Portuguese (mesquita), from Spanish (mezquita), and from Berber (tamezgida), ultimately originating in Arabic: masjid مسجد — Arabic pronunciation: [ˈmæsdʒɪd]. The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration. The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller masjid dedicated for the daily five prayers and the larger masjid jāmi (مسجد جامع) where the daily five prayers and the Friday congregation sermons are held with a high volume of attendance.[citation needed]
There exist strict and detailed requirements in Sunni fiqh for a place of worship to be considered a masjid, with places that do not meet these requirements regarded as musallas There are stringent restrictions on the uses of the area formally demarcated as the masjid (which is often a small portion of the larger complex), and, in the Sharia, once an area is formally designated as a masjid, it remains so until the Last Day.