The Prophet's Mosque

About The Prophet's Mosque

Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia

The Prophet's Mosque (al-Masjid al-Nabawi) is the second holiest site in Islam after the Masjid al-Haram, one of the largest mosques in the world, and the heart of Madinah. The Prophet Muhammad built it beside his home in 1 AH (622 CE), after his migration and after Quba Mosque, on land belonging to two orphans of the Ansar, Sahl and Suhayl, who wished to give it as a gift; the Prophet insisted on paying, and Abu Ayyub al-Ansari paid the price. At first a simple open-air building, it served as community centre, court of law and religious school as well as a place of prayer, with the minbar from which the Prophet delivered the Friday sermon. The mosque was enlarged again and again under the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the Umayyads, Abbasids and Ottomans, and finally in the Saudi era, with its greatest expansion in 1994. After Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz's expansion in 91 AH the room of Aisha was brought inside the mosque; known today as the Sacred Chamber, in the south-eastern corner, it holds the graves of the Prophet and his companions Abu Bakr and Umar, and above it rises the Green Dome, the mosque's most famous landmark. Between the chamber and the minbar lies the Rawda, which the Prophet described as a garden of Paradise. In 1327 AH (1909) the mosque became the first place in Arabia to be lit by electric lamps. Millions of pilgrims come to pray here and to visit the Prophet's grave and greet him. Hotels and old markets surround the mosque, and its courtyards are shaded by giant umbrellas that open and close automatically.

Where:

Medina, Saudi Arabia