What are the specifications that mosques should be built with today in accordance with the Sunnah?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : What are the specifications for building a mosque in accordance with 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 are building a mosque!
The Shaykh : They are unable to.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Because the Ministry of Islamic Endowments is placing an obstacle in the way of applying the Prophetic Sunnah!
Another questioner: ...
The Shaykh : As for the Salafi mosque, I had drawn up a plan for it in a book I had started long ago, in which I had made a short progress, and which I had titled "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 on this is one in Sunan Abu Dawud that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) entered his mosque one day through a door, and it had doors, he entered through a door and saidSunan Abi Dawud 462Sahih (Al-Albani). Thus it was said, the Messenger with him was Abdullah ibn Umar, they were entering the mosque, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is saying this hadith and Abdullah ibn Umar is picking it up, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) says Sunan Abi Dawud 462Sahih (Al-Albani) meaning we men do not enter from it. Naafi’ said "Ibn Umar did not enter from that door after that".
Al-Halabi: Allahu Akbar, the affirmation.
The Shaykh : I took from this hadith that it should be that in the Salafi mosque there is a door specifically for women, in which men do not share with them at all. It happened that I visited Egypt ten years ago and we visited a large village or town named Sohag, and there is a group there called the Supporters of the Sunnah, and they said to us, we are building a mosque, if you want to see such a thing, so I went with them. They said, here is the door and here is the qiblah, and so on. After they described it to me, I said to them, where is the door for the women? They benefited from this, and I hope they applied it. The point is, the mosque indicated by the traditions and authentic hadiths should first not have a pillar that is a single piece polished so that it does not cut across the rows. Then it should not have a mihrab, and it should not have a minbar that cuts across 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 that indicates the qiblah is more so for the blind person than the mihrab, and so on. But these are false excuses to facilitate this 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 for that reason, some of the Salaf, among them Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, disliked praying in the arch, meaning the mihrab, so he avoided praying in the mihrab because this is from the habits... It has a door for women to enter and exit from, in which men do not share with them. And there should be a place for the women’s prayer, but this place does not necessarily have to be separated from the men by a curtain or a wall, because the Shari’ah clothing that is assumed to be the women’s attire is the hijab, and because it is good for the women to participate with the men in seeing the imam and the movements of the followers behind him. And all of this is from his (peace and blessings be upon him) guidance and biography. Today, people leave important things and bring in unimportant things. From these unimportant things is that they separate the women from the 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 whom are displaying their adornment, so they want them to pray like this, uncovered. Meaning the eyes of the men fall upon what is not permissible. So at that time we say:
"He led them, and Sa’d was wrapped in his cloak *** This is not, O Sa’d, how you lead the camels".
You do not treat errors with errors. It is said to the women who wish to attend the mosque, and this is permissible for them, and it may sometimes be better for them, contrary to the general ruleSunan Abi Dawud 567Sahih (Al-Albani). It is said to them, wear the Shari’ah clothing and attend the mosque as you are. No one sees any forbidden awrah from you. If they cannot direct the women, then what do they do? They hide the women from the men, despite the noses of both the men and the women. This is what comes to my mind regarding the mosque. I say that this is what you can do, because the Ministry of Endowments imposes a condition on you that there must be a mihrab, and there must be a minaret that pierces the clouds. While this minaret is, in my opinion, from the unrestricted public interests and not a devotional Sunnah. The minaret is from the unrestricted public interests, meaning its purpose is
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : ... even if it is from his own pocket or the collective, all of this is a waste of money. The important thing is that the minaret is from the unrestricted public interests, the purpose is to convey the voice of the mu’adhdhin to the farthest possible place. At that time, there were not the innovative means of today, such as loudspeakers, and therefore they used natural, easy means available at that time, so they built what? Minarets. Then over time, they excelled in building minarets. I was given the opportunity to travel to Morocco, meaning you may have seen it in pictures, in the capital of Morocco, Rabat, there is a minaret that may be six or seven meters wide, a house, meaning you can make it and go up and up until it reveals the whole town. Why this extravagance? Why the waste of money? They say we want to convey the voice of the mu’adhdhin to the people. In the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), there was no minaret, but in some of the authentic narrations we have, the Messenger’s (peace and blessings be upon him) mu’adhdhin would appear... in a high place, in this place he would call the adhan. And one of the mu’adhdhins of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was Umar ibn Umm Maktum, who was blind, so he would climb to that place while blind and call the Fajr adhan, and he would not call the adhan until the people passed by him and saw him, not hidden in this minaret that the viewer does not see, and it is said to him, "It is morning, it is morning," and he calls the adhan based on the information of the people passing on the road. So the minaret was not in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), but there was climbing from a place to a high place. And for that reason, it came in Sahih al-Bukhari that there was between the iqamah of the prayer and the suhur, I think the amount of time it takes for this mu’adhdhin to climb and descend, that is, the first and second mu’adhdhin, there are two adhans, so it means there is climbing and there is descending. This indicates to us that the appearance of the mu’adhdhin and his climbing to a high place is an intended matter for the purpose of conveying the voice to the people. Nevertheless, the people made the minaret the goal, while it is a means. Meaning they went beyond it being a means. The means is to go up and convey to the people, but they returned to exaggerating in raising its structure and constructing it, and they exaggerate in carving its stones, and so on, even in the time of the existence of loudspeakers. We see, for example, the mosque of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, we see a layer, a second layer, and a third layer... a waste of money, and no one asks... because he calls the adhan 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 Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) warned against in his sayingSunan Abi Dawud 449Sahih (Al-Albani). The clever one who builds a mosque without a like, builds a minaret without a like, this is from the signs of the establishment of the Hour, by the explicit hadith of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). As for the decoration of the mosque, which we mentioned earlier, the mosque should be simple, not having decorations. And for that reason, when Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was forced to expand the Prophet’s Mosque in his time, he said to the engineer builder, who is called today, he said "Shelter the people from the heat and the cold, and do not make it red and do not make it yellow". Meaning, what is the goal of the mosque? To shelter the people, to provide them refuge from the heat and the cold "and do not make it red and do not make it yellow".
Al-Halabi: Is there an addition "that it will tempt the people"?
The Shaykh : I do not remember this "and do not make it red and do not make it yellow". Why? Because they are decorations, and the houses of Allah must be sanctified from the matters of this world. This is the house of Allah. Today, the concepts have been reversed, unfortunately, due to people’s distance from following the guidance of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Today, if you mention to the people...
The Shaykh : This is something you cannot do today. What is the benefit?
The questioner : Some of the brothers are building a mosque!
The Shaykh : They are unable to.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : Because the Ministry of Islamic Endowments is placing an obstacle in the way of applying the Prophetic Sunnah!
Another questioner: ...
The Shaykh : As for the Salafi mosque, I had drawn up a plan for it in a book I had started long ago, in which I had made a short progress, and which I had titled "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 on this is one in Sunan Abu Dawud that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) entered his mosque one day through a door, and it had doors, he entered through a door and said
If we left this door for women
لو تركنا هذا الباب للنساءIf we left this door for women
لو تركنا هذا الباب للنساءAl-Halabi: Allahu Akbar, the affirmation.
The Shaykh : I took from this hadith that it should be that in the Salafi mosque there is a door specifically for women, in which men do not share with them at all. It happened that I visited Egypt ten years ago and we visited a large village or town named Sohag, and there is a group there called the Supporters of the Sunnah, and they said to us, we are building a mosque, if you want to see such a thing, so I went with them. They said, here is the door and here is the qiblah, and so on. After they described it to me, I said to them, where is the door for the women? They benefited from this, and I hope they applied it. The point is, the mosque indicated by the traditions and authentic hadiths should first not have a pillar that is a single piece polished so that it does not cut across the rows. Then it should not have a mihrab, and it should not have a minbar that cuts across 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 that indicates the qiblah is more so for the blind person than the mihrab, and so on. But these are false excuses to facilitate this religious innovation that people have been afflicted with since approximately the first century... On the contrary, he said to them
Fear these mihrabs...
اتقوا هذه المحاريب ..."He led them, and Sa’d was wrapped in his cloak *** This is not, O Sa’d, how you lead the camels".
You do not treat errors with errors. It is said to the women who wish to attend the mosque, and this is permissible for them, and it may sometimes be better for them, contrary to the general rule
but their houses are better for them
و بيوتهنّ خير لهنّThe questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : ... even if it is from his own pocket or the collective, all of this is a waste of money. The important thing is that the minaret is from the unrestricted public interests, the purpose is to convey the voice of the mu’adhdhin to the farthest possible place. At that time, there were not the innovative means of today, such as loudspeakers, and therefore they used natural, easy means available at that time, so they built what? Minarets. Then over time, they excelled in building minarets. I was given the opportunity to travel to Morocco, meaning you may have seen it in pictures, in the capital of Morocco, Rabat, there is a minaret that may be six or seven meters wide, a house, meaning you can make it and go up and up until it reveals the whole town. Why this extravagance? Why the waste of money? They say we want to convey the voice of the mu’adhdhin to the people. In the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), there was no minaret, but in some of the authentic narrations we have, the Messenger’s (peace and blessings be upon him) mu’adhdhin would appear... in a high place, in this place he would call the adhan. And one of the mu’adhdhins of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was Umar ibn Umm Maktum, who was blind, so he would climb to that place while blind and call the Fajr adhan, and he would not call the adhan until the people passed by him and saw him, not hidden in this minaret that the viewer does not see, and it is said to him, "It is morning, it is morning," and he calls the adhan based on the information of the people passing on the road. So the minaret was not in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), but there was climbing from a place to a high place. And for that reason, it came in Sahih al-Bukhari that there was between the iqamah of the prayer and the suhur, I think the amount of time it takes for this mu’adhdhin to climb and descend, that is, the first and second mu’adhdhin, there are two adhans, so it means there is climbing and there is descending. This indicates to us that the appearance of the mu’adhdhin and his climbing to a high place is an intended matter for the purpose of conveying the voice to the people. Nevertheless, the people made the minaret the goal, while it is a means. Meaning they went beyond it being a means. The means is to go up and convey to the people, but they returned to exaggerating in raising its structure and constructing it, and they exaggerate in carving its stones, and so on, even in the time of the existence of loudspeakers. We see, for example, the mosque of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, we see a layer, a second layer, and a third layer... a waste of money, and no one asks... because he calls the adhan 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 Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) warned against in his saying
The Last Hour will not come until people vie with one another about mosques.
لا تقوم الساعة حتّى يتباهى الناس بالمساجدAl-Halabi: Is there an addition "that it will tempt the people"?
The Shaykh : I do not remember this "and do not make it red and do not make it yellow". Why? Because they are decorations, and the houses of Allah must be sanctified from the matters of this world. This is the house of Allah. Today, the concepts have been reversed, unfortunately, due to people’s distance from following the guidance of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Today, if you mention to the people...