It is used for hosting weekly Friday prayer, as well as cultural, political, educational, worship activities, including book fairs, exhibitions, and religious ceremonies.

[1][2][3] The Grand Mosalla Mosque originated in a 1982 proposal to replace the University of Tehran as the primary location for weekly Friday prayer.

[4] A large section of land in Abbas Abad, the original site for the never-materialized pre-Revolution megaproject Shahestan Pahlavi, was allocated for the Grand Mosalla.

The competition was held in 1986 with Mohammad Karim Pirnia, Mehdi Chamran, Bagher Ayatollahzadeh Shirazi, Ali Ghaffari, and Mehdi Hodjat as the jury members, and with the participation of 36 native and foreign individuals from such countries as Japan, Syria, Pakistan, and the Netherlands, as well as legal entities.

The design was based on the Islamic architecture of Iran, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, which were historically part of the Achaemenid Empire.