Mosque of the Prophet

The Mosque of the Prophet, (Ar. Masjid an-Nabi also called, Masjid ash-Sharif and Masjid an-Nawabi ash Sharif). This mosque in Medina is the second most venerable mosque in Islam, after the al-Masjid al-Haram, or Grand Mosque of Mecca. The first mosque on the site of today's structure was supported by the trunks of standing palm trees that had grown there, and the Prophet himself worked on its construction. A stone originally indicated the direction of prayer (at first Jerusalem, and later Mecca). In its time, the mosque of Medina was the principal mosque in Islam, where the Prophet spent much of his time with his companions.

The mosque was enlarged first by the Prophet, and then by the Caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, al-Walid (the Byzantine Emperor sent gifts on this occasion), and al-Mahdi. The present mosque was built by the Mamluks, in particular by the Sultans Baybars and Qa'it Bey, and the Ottomans, with additions made in this century by King Abd al-Aziz Al Saud. The enormous number of visitors to the mosque at pilgrimage, time makes further expansion inevitable.

Within the mosque today is the tomb of the Prophet whose house was adjacent. In accordance with the Hadith that "Prophets are buried where they die", the tomb stands on the spot which was A'ishahs room in the hujrah, or women's apartments. Next to the Prophet's tomb are those of Abu Bakr and 'Umar whose burial was permitted in the Prophet's house by 'A'ishah. Next to these is a sepulchre which is called that of the Prophets daughter Fatimah, although it is more than likely that she is buried in the Baqi cemetery nearby.

Between the Prophet's tomb and a free standing mihrab a short distance away (this mihrab is much sought after as a place of prayer of exceptional potency) is a place called rawdah ("garden"). It is so named because the Prophet said "Between my house and my pulpit is a garden of the gardens of paradise."

Elaborate ceremonies have grown up surrounding visits to the tomb of the Prophet, The program of a formal visit (az-ziyarah) has specific stations within the mosque which are accompanied by pious recitations. Most Muslims aspire to a visit the tomb of the prophet which is usually combined with the Hajj or the Umrah.

Mosque of Quba

This Medinan mosque is also known as the "mosque of reverence" (Masjid at-Taqwa). Although Abu Bakr turned his house into a mosque while still in Mecca, and prayers were also performed at this house of Arqam, the Mosque of Quba is considered to be the first mosque in Islam. A mosque still stands upon the spot today.

Quba is about 5km/3 miles from Medina. Nearby is the Mabrak an-Naqah ("kneeling place of the she-camel"). Upon his arrival in Medina the Prophet let loose his camel Qaswa' to wander and choose where he would stay. Here the camel knelt. The Prophet himself settled nearby then moved when the larger mosque was built in Medina.

The name Masjid at-Taqwa is a reference to the Qur`an (9:IO8): "A place of worship which was founded upon reverence from the first day...wherein are men who love to purify themselves. Allah loves purifiers."

Mosque of the Two Qiblahs

(Ar. Masjid al-qiblatayn). A mosque in Medina where the Prophet suddenly turned towards Mecca during the prayer. Until then he had always prayed facing Jerusalem. The congregation followed suit and a revelation of the Qur'an later confirmed the establishment off Mecca as the new qiblah (prayer direction).

Dome of the Rock

Dome of the Rock, (Ar.Qubbat as-Sakhrah) is a shrine in Jerusalem often (incorrectly) called the Mosque of 'Umar". It is more a sanctuary than a mosque and it was not built by the Caliph 'Umar, but in a much later period, around 72/691.

The Dome stands over the rock on the Temple Mount from which the Prophet ascended to heaven in the Night Journey (mi'raj). The place is revered by the three Semitic religions and may have been the site of the Holy of Holies in the temple of Solomon. (Both Solomon and Jesus are Prophets in Islam.)

Many stories extoll the spiritual eminence of the Temple Mount which was, in fact, the original prayer direction (Qiblah) of the early Muslims before the direction of Mecca replaced it in the second year of the Hijrah. The Temple Mount is often referred to as the third holy place in Islam (haram), after Mecca and Medina.

The rock itself is oblong and measures 56 feet by 42 feet (18 by 14 meters). Below it is a chamber accessible by a stairway where one can pray in a small area set aside for the purpose (this is a special oratory in addition to the large prayer area on the ground level above). A crack in the rock visible from this chamber is explained as having split when the Prophet ascended to heaven; the rock wished to follow. The cave is called the Bir al-arwah "the Well of Spirits". When the Arabs conquered Jerusalem they found the Temple Mount abandoned and filled with refuse. The abandonment of the Temple site was in accordance with Jesus' prophecy that not a stone would be left standing on another, 'Umar ordered it cleaned and performed a prayer there.

The sanctuary above the rock, with its golden dome that dominates the skyline of old Jerusalem, was built by the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan around 72/691. Its splendid decorative designs are noted for their Byzantine-Syrian motifs. Calligraphic decorations, characteristic of much of Islamic art, majestically dominate the Dome of the Rock. The two hundred and forty yards/meters of inscriptions, famed for their beauty, are in Kufic style within, and Ta`liq on the outside. The inscriptions are all the Quranic verses about Jesus.

The Dome of the Rock's octagonal structure became the model for domed sanctuaries and Saints' tombs from Morocco to China. The octagon is a step in the mathematical series going from square, symbolizing the fixity of earthly manifestation, to Circle, the natural symbol for the perfection of heaven. Traditional baptismal fonts are also octagonal in virtue of the same symbolism, baptism being an initiation which opens the door from this world to the next, or to a superior state of being.

In Saints' tombs the lower part of the structure is square, or cubic; the octagon is a drum inserted as a transition between the cube of the base and the dome. In traditional Islamic architecture this configuration symbolises the link between earth, represented by the square, and heaven, symbolised by the dome; in human terms, and according to a similar principle, the Saint is the link between man and God. In Morocco when the King rides to Friday prayer on horseback, servants hold over him a large parasol, which corresponds to the architectural dome; this is thus a living tableau of the sacred function of man at prayer, for the monarch is also the Imam, or prayer-caller, of the nation.

In the case of the Dome of the Rock, the symbolism of its geometric forms echoes the significance of the Temple Mount as the site of the Temple of Solomon. It is the culmination of the revelations of Moses and Jesus in the restoration of the primordial Abrahamic unity which is Islam. The site of the structure is the Temple of Solomon; the calligraphic inscriptions recall the relationship between Jerusalem and Jesus, and the apocalypse to come; and the architecture, above all the octagonal form supporting a dome, is symbolic of the Miraj, or ascent to heaven, by the Prophet.

Although the Dome of the Rock was built by Syrian craftsmen trained in the Byzantine tradition, it is, nevertheless, the first major example of Islamic architecture, whose more "indigenous" expressions would come later. Situated on the site of the temple of Solomon, it proclaims the ascendancy of Islam. When the sanctuary was built, Mecca was being occupied by a challenger to the Caliphate, 'Abt Allah lhn az-Zubayr. 'Abd al-Malik therefore promulgated a decree whereby the Dome of the rock, rather than the Ka'bah, became the goal of the hajj, or pilgrimage. This decree was annulled with the reconquest of Mecca, but it demonstrates the sanctity that Islam attaches to the place.

Only the High Priest was allowed to walk in the Holy of Holies, and since the actual position of the Holy of Holies is now unknown, Judaism forbids access to the whole area of Temple Mount; a prohibition which is observed by orthodox Jews. In all likelihood, the Holy of Holies was over the rock which is within the Dome of the Rock. Sacred history and Rabbinical decisions have closed the Temple Mount to the first of the three Semitic religions. In Christianity the veil of the Temple, which separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple, was rent in twain at the crucifixion of Jesus, to symbolise the going forth of the Shechina into the world. Islam, the third and final Semitic religion which, like Christianity, is universal, makes of the Temple Mount the place where man, as man, is joined once more to God through the restoration of Adam's relationship to God before the Fall, as expressed in the ascent to heaven of the Prophet, thus it is Islam that restores it as a sanctuary.

When the Crusaders controlled Jerusalem, the Knights Templar turned the Dome of the Rock into a church and made it the model for their chapels, or "temples". The only such chapel still extant is in the Templar Castle of Tomar, Portugal, and in the small and ancient church of the True Cross (la Iglesia de la Vera Cruz) in Segovia, Spain. The Dome was also the emblem of the seal of the Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Templar. When Saladin recaptured Jerusalem he naturally made the Dome once more into an Islamic shrine.

The area around the Dome of the Rock contains a number of minor monuments which were built by the Ottomans. At the other end of the esplanade is the al-Aqsa' Mosque.

Black Stone

Black Stone (Ar. ai-hajar al-aswad). This is a stone set in the southeast corner of the Ka'bah built about 1.5 yards/metres from the ground.

It is black with reddish tones and yellow particles, of ovoid shape about II inches/28cm width and 15 inches/38 cm high, set in silver casing. During the circumambulation of the Ka'bah, the worshipper kisses the stone, or makes a gesture in its direction.

A Hadith of the Prophet says that it came down from heaven. The Caliph 'Umar once said, during tawaf or circumambulation; "I know that you are only a stone which does not have the power to do good or evil. If I had not seen the Prophet kissing you, I would not kiss you".

Tradition says that Adam placed it in the original Ka'bah. Later it was hidden in the Meccan mountain of Ahu Qubays. When Abraham rebuilt the Ka'bah, the Angel Gabriel brought out the stone, and gave it to him.

During the siege of Mecca in 64/683, the Ka'bah caught fire from a flaming arrow and the heat cracked the stone into three large parts and some smaller fragments.

In 317/930 the Qarmatians raided Mecca; they captured the stone, and carried it off to al-Hasa or Bahrayn, where it was kept. Ransom was offered for it, which was ignored. Then in 340/95I it was thrown, the historian Juwayni relates, into the Friday Mosque of Kufah with a note: "By command we took it, and by command we have brought it back." It was in three pieces before it was stolen; it is in seven pieces today.

Because stone is the most durable of substances and the one that comes closest to being eternal, it offers itself readily as a symbol of eternity, The Old Testament of the Bible calls God the "Rock of Ages", and Jesus says to Simon "thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:I8). Symbolically, it can also be said that undifferentiated stone hides within itself the essential and refulgent nature of gems, or precious stones.

The Black Stone, because of its colour, the absence of light, lends itself especially to the symbolism of the essential spiritual virtue of poverty for God (faqr) that is, a vocare deo, "emptiness for God", or a necessary extinction of the ego that must precede access to the centre which is the heart (qalb)

Jacob set up a pillar and on it, the stone on which he had rested his head during his dream. He anointed the stone with oil and it became an altar in the sanctuary, already sacred to Abraham that he founded at Beth-El, near Jerusalem.

The early Semites used unusual stones to mark places of worship and virtually every culture, ancient and modern, has recognised the inherent, symbolism of stones in some hieratic usage or other.

Ancient British tradition identifies this stone with the "Stone of Scone" which is under the royal coronation throne in Westminster Abbey.

Kerbela in Iraq

In 690, a tragic event in Kerbela, gave birth to the Shia' movement. After the death of the Umayyad Caliph Muawyad, the people of Kufa persuaded Hazrat Ali's son Imam Hussain, the prophet's grandson, to take power as the rightful leader of the Muslims. On the way to Iraq, Imam Hussain's clan were surrounded by the Caliph Yazid's troops and defeated after days in which its besiegers starved it out. The help that was promised from Kufa never arrived. The incident is at the root of the Shia' concept of themselves as a group persecuted for the true faith. The tomb of Imam Hussain in Kerbala was surmounted by a golden dome and became a major place of Shia' pilgrimage.

Ka'bah (lit. "cube")

The large cubic stone structure, covered with a black cloth, which stands in the centre of the Grand Mosque of Mecca. In one corner, the Ka'bah contains the Black Stone. Neither the stone nor the Ka'bah are objects of worship, but they represent a sanctuary consecrated to God since time immemorial, and it is towards the Ka'bah that Muslims orient themselves in prayer; thus the Ka'bah is a spiritual centre, a support for the concentration of consciousness upon the Divine Presence. (If one makes the ritual prayer inside the Ka'bah, it can be made in any direction; this is also true at the antipodes of Mecca in the South Pacific Ocean.) The Ka'bah is also called the "holy house" (al-bayt al-haram) and the "Ancient house" (al-bayt al-'atiq). The Black Stone (ai-hajar ol-aswad) is in the southeast corner, set 1.5 meters from the ground. In the opposite corner, set somewhat lower, is another stone of a reddish colour called the "stone of felicity" (hajar as-sa'adah). It is the centre of the Ka'bah which marks the direction of the qiblah, the focal point of ritual prayer. Overhanging the roof on one side is the mith 'ab or rainspout. The foundation at the base of the Ka'bah is called the shadrawan. The space between the Black Stone and the door is the al-multazam, "the place to hold on to". Around the Ka'bah is a restricted precinct called the haram of Mecca; this, in fact, surrounds the city on all sides, in some directions as far as 12m/20km. In this precinct the taking of any kind of life (except that of noxious or dangerous creatures) is not allowed, and only Muslims are allowed to enter.

The Ka'bah was originally founded by Adam, and after his death rebuilt by his son Seth. When the time came, it was rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ishmael. This Ka'bah was built without a roof but with doors at ground level on the cast and the west sides. When it was finished, Abraham was commanded by God to go to Mount Thabir nearby and call mankind to pilgrimage to "the ancient house" (al-bayt al-'atiq).

Afterwards, the Ka'bah was rebuilt by the clan of the Amalikah, descendants of Noah, and then by the Banu Jurhum, who also descended from Noah through Qahtan, the Joktan of the Bible. Several hundred years before the revelation of the Qur'an, the Ka'bah was rebuilt again by Qusayy ibn Qilab who had led the Quraysh tribe to Mecca. At that time, according to the historian Azraqi, the Ka'bah, without a roof, was 4.5 meters high, and there were venerated stones in all four corners.

Eighteen years before the Hijrah it was rebuilt again. A Byzantine ship which had been wrecked in Mecca's port of Shu'avbiyyah provided the wood for the Ka'bah, which was built in alternate layers of teakwood and stone by a Coptic carpenter called Baqum. When the time came to replace the Black Stone, strife broke out between various persons demanding the honour of putting it back, leading to so serious a dispute that bloodshed was threatened. A solution to the dispute being asked of Muhammad, then known as the 'Trustworthy" (a!-Amin), and not yet called to his prophetic mission, who, as if it were a sign from Allah, had appeared among the disputers at a crucial moment, he invited the leaders of the clans to carry the stone by holding a cloth on to which it had been placed, he then lifted up the stone himself and set it in the corner of the wall.

After the establishment of Islam, the Caliphs 'Umar and 'Uthman both felt the need to enlarge the Mosque (al-Masjid al-Haram) around the Ka'bah. They compensated the owners of the surrounding houses which had to he demolished in order to increase the circumambulation area (al-mataf), and 'Umar was the first to build an enclosure around the Ka'bah, less than the height of a man) with gates and lamps. 'Uthman introduced covered porticoes for prayers.

When in 64/684 Mecca, then under occupation by the insurgent 'Abd Allah ibn az-Zubayr, was besieged by the army of Yazid, the Umayyad, a flaming arrow from one of the besiegers set fire to the Ka'bah, which was destroyed. The heat cracked the Black Stone into three pieces. On examining the original foundation of the now demolished Ka'bah, Ibn az-Zubayr concluded that the Ka'bah had previously included the enclosure to one side (al-hijr) containing the graves of Ishmael and Hagar. He therefore rebuilt it on a larger scale, increasing its greatest length to 26 cubits from the previous 18. He also made it higher, raising it from 18 to 27 cubits, and built it of stone, with two doors. The Black Stone was repaired and held together by a silver hand around the three pieces. He brought mosaics and columns from a church in the Yemen (originally built by Abrahah who had wished his church to rival the religious attraction of Mecca), using the mosaics for decoration and setting three polychrome marble columns inside. In the tradition of the Caliph Mu'awiyah, lbn az-Zubayr covered the Ka'bah with black silk.

'Abd Allah ibn az-Zuhayr, who had declared himself Caliph in opposition to the Umayyad.s, was slain by the troops of the Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan led by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, in 73/692. Al-Hajjaj, for his part, disliked the changes which had been made and reduced the Ka'bah to its former size, leaving a semicircular wall surrounding the hijr, and the hijr itself, outside the Ka'bah. Further building was done by the Caliphs Mahdi, Mu'tamid, and Mu'tadid. Mahdi extended the mataf, and added three rows of colonnades, himself participating in the work. By 167/782, the Ka'bah had much the appearance it has today.

In 979/1571 the famous architect Sinan, who had already built many resplendent mosques in Istanbul and Turkey, began rebuilding the Mosque around the Ka'bah, the previous mosque having been demolished the year before on the orders of the Ottoman Sultan Selim II. For the sacred mosque, ai-Masjid al-Haram, Sinan created a colonnade of 892 columns of marble and stone over which were set 500 arches and cupolas. The interior decoration of gold designs and calligraphy was the work of 'Abd Allah al-Mufti. The whole was completed by 994/1586; it had seven minarets and nineteen entrances, and there was prayer space for 12,000 in the covered part of the mosque; another 24,000 could pray in the open courtyard. In 1030/1620 floods swept away the Station of Abraham (Maqam lbrahim), the lamps, and part of the walls of the Ka'bah. Sultan Murad ordered extensive repairs which did not, however, involve any restructuring.

However, from 1375/1955 a massive program of enlargement and rebuilding of the mosque was initiated and carried out in the reign of King Faysal of Saudi Arabia. In 1377/1957 cracks were found in the Ka'bah and repaired - the first work on the structure since 1039/1629. In this rebuilding the mosque was considerably enlarged. It has since then perhaps held several hundreds of thousands of worshipers at a time. The sa'y course, which until then had been outside the mosque, was roofed over and is now within the precincts of the mosque, which was rebuilt on two levels. On both of these levels the ritual circumambulation (tawaf) is now performed.

The architects had originally recommended that the mosque of Sinan be torn down, to be replaced by an entirely new structure. King Faysal thereupon called a conference of architects to discuss the question, who proceeded to make the same recommendation. King Faysal insisted that the rebuilding and expansion of the mosque conserve as much as possible of the mosque of Sinan; this was done, thereby saving this magnificent monument from demolition.

The dimensions of the present day Ka'bah are: the north-east wall 12.63 meters, the eastern wall 11.22 meters, the western wall 13.10 meters, and the north-west wall 11.03 meters (it is not completely regular). Its height is 13 meters. The door on the northern side is 2 meters from the ground and is 1.7 meters wide.

A new kiswah (cover or cladding) is made for the Ka'bah each year; it is a black cloth with black calligraphic patterns woven into it, and a band of Qur'anic calligraphy in gold thread around the top portion. The old kiswah is removed and cut up after the annual pilgrimage and the pieces are distributed to pilgrims. The Ka'bah is then covered with a new kiswah, while it is being replaced a temporary white covering is placed upon the Ka'bah.

The 12th-century Sufi lbn 'Arabi said that the Ka'bah represents Being. As the Adamic temple, it is the first temple of mankind; and as the temple of the last religion, it is the final temple of mankind, the once forgotten sanctuary, the keystone. In Christianity, the end of the cycle of Adamic creation is marked by the symbolism of the perfect city, the descent of the new Jerusalem from heaven. The perfect city is a crystalline, geometric symbol from the mineral world, in complementary' opposition to the organic symbolism of the beginning of the cycle, which is the garden, vegetation, and, above all, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at its centre. Islam shares the symbol of the Garden of the beginning with Judaism and Christianity, but its symbol of the centre at the end of time is not that of the city, the abstract, man-made habitat that replaces nature, but of the geometric essence of the city, reduced to its simplest form. This is nothing more than a cube, the abstraction of a crystal, the cube of the Ka'bah. Thus the eschatological paradigm of the symbolic "squaring of the circle" is completed, or transposed; the sphere is made cube, the perfect potentiality of the beginning reduced to the perfect completion and stability of the end. The juxtaposition of the organic amd the crystalline is also prominent in the decorative calligraphy that is so striking a feature of Islamic architecture; here, the words of the Qur'an, the crystallisation of devine speech, intertwine with floral motifs; the Intellect intertwines with existence.

One should add that the Ka'bah represents the "ultimate enclosure" for the Divine Presence that the Old Testament calls the Shekhinah (also "Schechina"). After the covenant with Abraham the Shekhinah "dwelt" in the Ark until, when the
Jews ceased to he nomads and Solomon built the Temple, the Shekhinah dwelt in the Holy of Holies. The New Testament says that when Jesus' body was pierced with the lance, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain and the Shekhinah went out of the Holy of Holies into the world. Thus the Ka'bah is both the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies, not in the sense of enclosing the Divine Presence but, rather, as the centre of a Holy of Holies that stretches out in all directions; thus the whole earth becomes the focus of prayer for every Muslim, who each day fulfils the role that the Jewish high priest performed only on the Day of Atonement. Since Islam is the return to the primordiality of Adam, the whole earth is once more symbolically the paradisal garden, from any point of which, man, like Adam, may talk in sacred speech with God. See BLACK STONE.