What are the specifications that mosques should be built to today in accordance with the Sunnah?

The questioner : What are the specifications in building a mosque from the Sunnah? We ask for clarification.

The Shaykh : This is something you cannot do today. What is the benefit?

The questioner : Some of the brothers build a mosque!

The Shaykh : They cannot.

The questioner : They cannot.

The Shaykh : No.

The questioner : ... I have a question ... .

The Shaykh : Because the Ministry of Islamic Endowments is putting a stumbling block in the way of applying the Prophetic Sunnah!

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : The Salafi mosque—I had drawn a plan for it in a book I had started long ago, and I had made a short progress in it, which I had named "The Desirable Fruit in the Jurisprudence of the Sunnah and the Book." When I reached the chapter on mosques and the Prophet’s prohibition of decorating mosques, and among the hadiths is one in "Sunan Abu Dawud" that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) entered his mosque one day from a door, and it had doors, he entered from a door and said: . That is what he said. The Prophet (peace be upon him) was with Abdullah ibn Umar entering the mosque, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said this hadith, and Abdullah ibn Umar picked it up, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: ; meaning we men do not enter from it. Nafi' said: "Ibn Umar did not enter the mosque from that door after that."
Al-Halabi : Allahu Akbar! Verification.

The Shaykh : I took from this hadith that it should be that in the Salafi mosque there is a special door for women that men do not share with them. It so happened that I visited Egypt ten years ago, and we visited a large village or town named "Sohag," and there is a group of supporters of the Sunnah there, and they said to us: We are building a mosque, if you want to see how it is, we went with them. They said to me: Here is the door and here is the qiblah, and so on. After they described it to me, I said to them: So where is the women's door? They benefited from it, and I hope they applied it, meaning.
The point is: The mosque indicated by the athar and authentic hadiths should first not have a pillar column, it should be a single piece of plaster; so that it does not cut the rows. Then it should not have a mihrab, and it should not have a minbar that cuts the rows. The minbar should be three steps, and it fulfills the duty of the minbar and the duty of the mihrab. And there is a practical refutation of those who say the mihrab is to indicate the qiblah. We say to them: The minbar indicates the qiblah! And this minbar indicates the qiblah to the blind person more than the mihrab, and so on. But these are false arguments to facilitate this bid'ah (religious innovation) that people have been afflicted with since approximately the first century... On the contrary, he said to them: because this is from the custom of the Christians in their churches. And therefore some of the Salaf, including Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, disliked praying in the taq (arch), the taq means the mihrab, so he avoided praying in the mihrab; because this is from the habits... in a minbar with three steps... and it has a door for women to enter and exit from, which men do not share with them. And there should be a place for women's prayer, but this place is not necessary to be separated from men by a curtain or a wall; because the Shari'ah clothing that is supposed to be worn by women is the hijab, and because it is good for women to participate with men in seeing the imam and the movements of the followers behind him. And all of this is from his (peace be upon him) guidance and biography. Today people leave important things and bring unimportant things. Among these unimportant things is that they separate women from men with concrete. There is no necessity for this separation. But what is the necessity that suggests to them? That they see the women, most of them are tabarruj (displaying adornment), so if they want to pray like this exposed, it means the eyes of men fall on what is not permissible; so at that time we say:
"Sa'd led them, and Sa'd was wrapped *** This is not how, O Sa'd, you lead the camels"
You do not treat errors with errors. It is said to the women who want to attend the mosque—and this is permissible for them, and it may be better for them sometimes, contrary to the rule: —it is said to them: Wear the Shari'ah clothing, and attend the mosque as you are, so that no one sees from you any forbidden 'awrah (nakedness) at all. No, they cannot direct the women; so what do they do? They hide the women from the men, despite the noses of both men and women.
So this is what comes to my mind regarding the mosque. I say that this is not possible for you because the Ministry of Endowments imposes a condition on you; that there must be a mihrab, there must be a minaret that pokes the clouds. While this minaret is, in my opinion, from the mursal masalih (unrestricted public interests) and not a 'ibadah (act of worship) sunnah. The minaret is from the mursal masalih; meaning the intended purpose of it.

The questioner : Even if it was ... .

The Shaykh : This "even" has no place in the grammar. If it has a place in his private pocket or the total, all of this is a waste of money.
So the important thing is that the minaret is from the mursal masalih. The intended purpose is to convey the voice of the mu'adhdhin (caller to prayer) to the farthest possible place. At that time, the invented means present today, such as loudspeakers, did not exist. And therefore they used natural, easy means at that time. So they built what? Minarets. Then with time, they diversified in building minarets. I was given the opportunity to travel to Morocco, meaning you may have seen it in pictures. What is the name of the capital of Morocco? Rabat. It has a minaret, meaning you would say its width is six or seven meters, a house, meaning you could make it, and up and up, and you go out and see the whole town. Why this extravagance? Why the waste of money? He said: We want to convey to people what? The voice of the mu'adhdhin.
In the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), there was no minaret. But in some of the authentic narrations we have, the Prophet's (peace be upon him) mu'adhdhin would appear... in a high place in this location, and he would call to prayer there. And one of the Prophet's (peace be upon him) mu'adhdhins, Umar ibn Umm Maktum, was blind. So he would climb to that place while blind, and he would call the Fajr prayer and not call until the people passed by and saw him. He was not hidden in this minaret that the seer does not see. It would be said to him: "You have risen, you have risen," and he would call to prayer based on the information of the people passing by on the road. So the minaret was not in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), but there was a climb to a high place. And therefore it came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" that there was between the iqamah (second call) and the suhur (pre-dawn meal) what I think is the amount of time it takes for this mu'adhdhin to climb and descend. The first and second mu'adhdhin in two calls. So it means there is a climb and a descent. This makes us feel that the mu'adhdhin's prominence and his climb to a high place is an intended matter to convey the voice to people. Nevertheless, people made the minaret the goal, while it is a means; because they went beyond it being a means. The means is that you go up and convey to people. But they exaggerated in raising its building and construction, and exaggerated in carving its stones, and so on, even in the time of the existence of loudspeakers. We see—for example—the Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi mosque, you see a layer, a second layer, a third layer. For what is this cost? For what is this waste of money? No one goes up now at all, because he is calling to prayer in the middle of the mosque. So the building of minarets in mosques is like the "clergy," it has no meaning, neither rational nor transmitted. This is what the Prophet (peace be upon him) warned against in his saying: . The clever one is the one who builds a mosque without a like, builds a minaret without a like, and so on. This is from the signs of the establishment of the Hour by the text of the hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
As for the decoration of the mosque, as we mentioned earlier, the mosque should be plain, meaning it should not have decorations. That is why 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), when he was compelled to expand the Prophet's Mosque during his time, said to the architect, whom they call an engineer today: "Shelter the people from the heat and the cold, but do not paint it red or yellow." What is the purpose of the mosque? It is to shelter people and provide them refuge from the heat and the cold. "Do not paint it red or yellow."
Al-Halabi: Regarding the addition of "it distracts people"?

The Shaykh : Yes?
Al-Halabi: Is "it distracts people" an addition?

The Shaykh: I do not recall this; it is "do not paint it red or yellow." Why? Because this is part of the decorations, and the houses of Allah must be kept free from worldly matters. This is the house of Allah. Today, unfortunately, concepts have been reversed due to people's distance from following the guidance of the Messenger (peace be upon him). Today, if you point out to people...