Is it permissible to install a mihrab in the mosque? And were there pillars in the Prophet’s Mosque?

The Shaykh: Regarding the mihrab in the mosque, what is its ruling, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : It is a religious innovation (bid'ah).

The questioner: Some people say, or I have heard someone say, that the mihrab saves a row.

The Shaykh: The mihrab saves a row! He is mistaken.

The questioner: He is mistaken. May Allah reward you with good and may Allah bless you.

The Shaykh: No, I must clarify to you what he is imagining. There are two things, the most important or most dangerous of which is close to correcting the Wise Lawgiver. Because this man is in one of two positions: either he believes with us that there was no mihrab in the Mosque of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), or he believes the opposite, as the masses of people today assume. If it is the first, then here lies the danger. If he believes with us that there was no mihrab in the Mosque of the Messenger, that means the Messenger, who supervised the construction of the mosque, was not the appropriate engineer to plan the layout of the mosque, and he missed what this backward person corrected. Do you understand where the danger lies? Or, he believes with us that there was no minbar. In that case, this belief overturns our entire creed, for the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). Then, this statement is only valid regarding mosques, not regarding congregational mosques. Perhaps I made a mistake when I said this statement is valid, because it is not valid. Rather, I intended to say that this statement may be correct regarding mosques, but not for congregational mosques. Mosques where Friday prayer is not performed naturally do not have a minbar from which the preacher delivers the sermon. As for congregational mosques, they have minbars. In that case, this man and his like say what they say to smooth over reality, not for a claim they believe in. The presence of the minbar in the mosque indicates what the qiblah is, clearly. Then, does he deny the long minbar that cuts across the rows and indicates the qiblah at the same time? He does not investigate these aspects. And this is among the misfortunes of being occupied with politics. Perhaps you understood me.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh: Ah, and despite that, there is a very nice treatise, although some commentators have corrupted it. It is the treatise of al-Hafiz al-Suyuti, which he titled *I‘lam al-Arib bi-Bid‘at al-Maharib* (Informing the Discerning of the Innovation of Mihrabs) or *Bi-Huduth Bid‘at al-Maharib* (On the Occurrence of the Innovation of Mihrabs). In that treatise, he adopted this correct school of thought: that there was no mihrab in the Mosque of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). Some later scholars adopted this view, and the one who comes to my mind now isThe Shaykh : Mulla ‘Ali al-Qari al-Hanafi. They explicitly stated that the mihrab in the mosque is a religious innovation. In addition to this, there are reports from the Salaf that they disliked praying in the *taq* (the arch or niche of the mihrab). The reason for this is that mihrabs are a Christian innovation that infiltrated the Muslims in the early centuries, unfortunately. Therefore, some of the knowledgeable ones regarding the Sunnah, when they prayed in a mosque with a *taq* and a mihrab, would turn away from it as if there were no mihrab there. For this reason, researchers do not hesitate at all to deny the innovated nature of the mihrab in the mosque. Therefore, I proceeded to say that when I narrate the hadith of Dhu al-Yadayn, in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed the ‘Asr prayer in two rak‘ahs, then said the taslim, then ended up in a corner of the mosque, and the discussion took place between him and Dhu al-Yadayn when he said to him, “Did you shorten the prayer or did you forget?” He said, “None of that happened.” He said, “Yes, O Messenger of Allah.” So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up to his place. And I say here, I do not say “to his mihrab” because there was no mihrab in the Mosque of the Messenger. Rather, there was a place where he prayed. And it came in a hadith whose chain can be improved: It does not concern us much the authenticity of the hadith as much as it concerns us what is in it, which draws attention to the fact that it is not necessary to adopt a mihrab as an indicator of the qiblah. For example, it is possible to place a mark on the qiblah wall and put, for example, two pillars that indicate that this is the place of the imam. As for our adherence to the mihrab, especially these mihrabs in which they excel in enlarging them, making them three-dimensional, decorating them, etc., the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner: A continuation of the question. Also, regarding the presence of pillars or columns inside the mosque, were there pillars in the Mosque of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as they exist now, or fewer than that, or so on?

The Shaykh: Of course, there were pillars in the Prophet’s Mosque, as many as you want or as few as you want, because the mosque was modest and was not built except on pillars. And despite that, they used to prohibit those who prayed in this mosque from praying between the pillars. This means, and I had not yet started writing the book *Al-Thamar al-Mustatib fi Fiqh al-Sunnah* (The Reachable Fruit in the Jurisprudence of the Sunnah), and in the book I had placed an image of the Salafi mosque, showing that it should have no door latch and no pillar, and it should have a door for men and a door for women. Today, as you know, it is possible to build a mosque without any pillar and without any column.

Another questioner: This is what we did and what we built. May Allah reward you with good for your recommendations.

The Shaykh : Praise be to Allah.

The questioner: But when we went to Kuwait, they started saying, why are there no pillars? Why is there no mihrab?

The Shaykh : Allahu Akbar.

The questioner: And they took exception to this statement. Even though they say that the mihrab is not a Sunnah, they started saying it saves a row. So I said to them, in this case, they can stand to the right and left of the imam if you want to save a row. And he says this is not from the Sunnah.

The Shaykh: What is it?

The questioner: I mean that the worshippers stand to the right of the imam and to his left to form a row. He used the word that it saves a row, meaning the presence of the mihrab saves a row, meaning the imam passes by and prays in it.

The Shaykh: I know this. Ask him the following question, and this is among the misfortunes of smoothing over innovation: Which is more deeply immersed in contradicting the Sunnah: establishing a fixed mihrab over time and place, or if the need arises and the rows increase and the imam is forced to stand in the middle of the row? Which one, I say, in terms of occurrence? Without a doubt, the second is less frequent. In fact, in many mosques, especially in your mosque, I do not imagine that the imam will ever be forced to pray in the middle of the row. And if it happens, it is very rare, right? While the mihrab is fixed whether there is a need or not. Do you understand? Here comes the rule: “Necessities permit the prohibited, and necessity is estimated by its degree.” That means, if we build a city mosque, it is not imaginable that there would be rows in it where the imam is forced to stand in the middle of the row. In that case, the mihrab is not needed to remove this problem. Now, do not think that there is a need, or that there is no need. This is the system now, and the matter is ended. Allah is the Helper.
Al-Halabi: Our Shaykh

The Shaykh: Yes.