Installing prayer niches and minarets in mosques

Question:
They ask, may Allah preserve you, about the ruling on installing prayer niches in mosques?

Answer:
There is nothing wrong with it. This is an old practice among the scholars, and they did not reject it. Nowadays, people reject the minaret and reject the prayer niches, saying that this is a religious innovation (bid'ah). These are structures, not acts of worship; they are not a newly invented prayer or act of worship. These are structures intended to serve as a sign for the mosque. A mosque without a prayer niche is not recognized as a mosque. If you enter it, you do not know that it is a mosque, and if you want to pray, you do not know where the qiblah is.
The prayer niches have a benefit and are good. They are old, not new or newly invented from the time of the Salaf. The prayer niches are present in mosques, and the minaret is for carrying the voice and serving as a sign for the mosque from a distance. If a mosque did not have a minaret, you would not know that there is a mosque around you; it indicates the mosque. Yes.