The Holy Prophet's Mosque in Madinah Munawwarah

The Holy Prophet's Mosque in Madinah

The Holy Prophet (S.A.W.) came out from Makkah on 27th of

Safar (SEP.10, 622 A.D.) in the first year of Hijrah

and reached Quba after ten days. He stayed

there for four days and on 12th of Rabi-al-Awwal

(Sep. 24) his Highness went to Madinah .

The Prophet (S.A.W.) announced that wherever his she-camel

kneels down he will choose that place for building

the mosque and his house. The place where his she-camel

knelt down is the Prophet's mosque at present.

The Prophet (S.A.W.) bought that land. At first it was a

ruined place with some date palms' roots and a few

number of graves. The Prophet (S.A.W.) ordered to cut the

roots and level the place and use the date palms'

trunks and fronds in mosque's building .The

Prophet (S.A.W.) placed three doors for the mosque , the

southern door at the end of the mosque and Babul

Rahmah (Al-Rahmah door) at the west and the door of Gabriel at the 

east where he himself enters the mosque. The 

mosque was as high as a man and its area

was 1050 square meters , it means that the

north-south side was 70 zar (35 meters) and the

east-west side was 60 zar (30 meters) .The

mosque was built of wood and sun-dried bricks

and date palm's trunks covered its roof .The

Prophet (S.A.W.) made a shady place at the end of the mosque which

was named Suffah , in which the strangers and

Indigents took shelter , and the people who lived

there were called "habitants of Suffah" .

Qiblah

The Muslims said their prayers at the Prophet's

Mosque toward the Holy Jerusalem for sixteen

months until verse No .144 form "Baqarah" 

Surah was revealed and due to that the Qiblah

was changed to Kaaba ."We have seen the

turning of your face to heaven and now verily we

shall make you turn toward the inviolable place of

worship , then turn your face toward it ."

Pulpit

The first pulpit that was built for the Prophet (S.A.W.),

was a platform made of mud and without stairs

so the new comers could recognize the

Prophet (S.A.W.). Who delivered his homilies on Friday

and the other occasions. In the 7th year A.H

(628 A.D.) a new pulpit was made of wood.

Sacred Area 

The merciful Prophet (S.A.W.) had defined the sacred

place in a Hadith (tradition) , when he said: The

area between my house and my pulpit is one

of the Paradise gardens . The holy place is

22 meters long and 15 meters wide. Later on

a small part of the holy place was added to

the environs of the Prophet's house.(Present shrine)

The Pillars

The pillars of the mosque are trunks of dates palms

and their locations have not been changed in various

times of the mosque's extensions. Among this

pillars , eight pillars are famous because of some

specialities.

1)Mokhlagheh pillar

2)Ghoreh pillar (Ayeshe or Mohajerin), the place

for sitting the emigrants from Makkah.

3)Tawbah pillar (Abu Lababeh) , the pillar where Abu

Lababeh tied himself for repentance.

4)Mohras pillar, the place where Imam Ali (A.S.) used to

say his prayers.

5)Wufood pillar , the place where the Prophet

Muhammad (S.A.W.) used to receive the missions of

delegations.

6)Sarir pillar , the place where the Prophet (S.A.W.) 

performed his Etekaf (a kind of worship) in there.

7)Morabah-tol-ghabr pillar 

8)Tahajod pillar , the place for midnight prayer

and incantations. After the return of the Holy

Prophet (S.A.W.) from Khybar war and with

considering the increasing of the Muslims population

the Prophet (S.A.W.) felt that the mosque was in need of some

extensions, so by adding the adjacent land the

measurement of the mosque became twice as much,

Thus, the expansion of the Prophet's house in

north and south and east became twice as much.

In this manner , the mosque become as a

rectangle of 136 Zar (68 m) long from

south to north and 114 Zar (57 m) wide from

east to west. During the early time of Islam

ultimate the area of mosque was 3876

meters .

The House of the Prophet (S.A.W.) 

The house of the Prophet (S.A.W.) , which at present

is his holy shrine , can be measured in south

(Qiblah) about 10 .75 Zar and in north (Sham) 10.

25 Zar , and the east-west width is 6 .65 Zar.

Ground Floor

The ground floor of the mosque which consists in the

old mosque and the new expansion forms the most

important part of the Prophet 's mosque.

The Principal Space

The new expansion which all of it is for prayer is in

the ground floor and the eastern and western

sections are identical. The internal section that

joins two sides sections, has formed in direction

of old building. All over the praying area is roofed

except the open space (courtyards) which has

movable roofs .All the roofs are considered with

dimensions of (6 by 6) meters or (18 by)meters 18 and the pillars

that the load of the roof is upon them are 12

m height. The ground floor and the principal

area are 14 m height that draw the horizon

line of the mosque building. The necessity

of equal connection between the old building and the

new one caused some renovations in the old

mosque . Among them we could mention the

covering of the open space (courtyard) with 12

electrical shades in the form of old domes. This

identical designs of (18 by 18) meters have been

performed in two open spaces with dimensions

of (64 by 32) meters.

Internal spaces

The ground floor has 27 open spaces with 27

sliding movable domes. The dimension of each

one is (18 by 18) meters and artistically located around

the ground floor.

The minarets

Apart from four principal minarets, another six

ones were built in the mosque that each

one is 104 meters high and on the top of each one is a shining 

crescent.

Underground floor

Underground floor measurements are equal to the ground

floor's and some of industrial equipments are

located at this place. The height of this floor is four

meters and the main pillars of the building that

are in the depth of 20 meters have crossed

inside of it.

All the roof of the Prophet's mosque is left for praying

and it has a capacity of 90000 prayers. There are

several ways for prayers to reach the mosque but

in order to prevent the clash between those who exit

from principal doors and those who go to the 

underground floor , they have built some exit doors

beside the principal entrance doors which

related to the prayers on the ground floor .There are 30

stairways and escalators to allow the prayers to

go to the ground floor and the underground floor,

for the roof there is a covered balcony with the

width of six meters , and it could be seen all over

the mosque.

The roof of the Mosque

The new project of the expansion of the holy

shrine formation is based on inspiration of

everlasting traditions of Islamic architecture, for

example , the design of the courtyard's tents is based

on this method in such a way that it can make a

connection between the traditional idea of using

the thin cloth for covering the roof and keeping away

the direct sun light from the tents.

Specialty of tents

Among the for mentioned tents, 12 of them are

spread out upon two courtyards of the mosque.

The tents are 14 meters high in case of being

spread out that is as tall as the wall of the

mosque and completely cover the

courtyards of the mosque. The flexible metal bars are

placed inside each tent. The pillar of each tent

is covered with white marble and is automatically

opens and closes the tent. Each tent covers an

area of (18 by17) meters. The diameter of each tent

is near 14 m and the weight of each tent is 10

tons .In summer at daytime the white cover of the

tents spread out until its

shadow covers all over the courtyard, this cover is 

removed at nights and the night pleasing

breeze flows in. 

Movable domes

The main role of these domes is covering the

courtyards at different climate conditions and

regulating the inside air of the mosque. In summer

with the first beam of the sunlight these domes move gently

and completely cover the courtyard and provide

a pleasant shadow and help the air - conditioning

system. When the night comes the domes return back

to their first place and the ceilings open to let the

hot air exit to the night's cold sky and in

winter this action happens vice versa .

The Minarets

The minarets are the principal sign of

each mosque from the beginning and are

employed as a fundamental element in the Prophet's

mosque at new expansion of it. In this way six

new minarets were built with the height of

104 meters and have became as a beautiful

symbol .In the expanded section of the mosque

2104 pillars are established and on the top of

them there are arches that cover the praying

space .Each pillar is the pedestal of four arches

that form the porches and ceilings. The arches

are covered by pieces of industrial granite

in blue , gray and white color. At the

joint point of arch and ceiling the pictures of

flowery works could be seen and the diameter of

each pillar at the ground is 64 cm and the height

of each one is 13 meters.

Entrances and doors

There are seven big entrances around the

mosque and each one has pillars and portals.

These doors are in the north , east and west and for

each one there is a separate entrance and exit.

The length and width of the doors are (6 by 3) meters.

The doors are made of thick wood with a

thickness of fifteen cm and are covered by a

layer of copper. At the middle of each door there

is a big circle and is imprinted by the name of

Muhammad (S.A.W.) and there is a smaller

circle in it that is imprinted by the name of

Rasul-Allah, and there are some other identical

doors in the north and west of the Qiblah of the

mosque. The doors in ground floor are as

follows : Seven big entrances, each one with five,

3 by 6 doors and fourteen side doors with the

same size .Two entrances are placed at the back

of the building and each one has three doors with the

same dimensions. Two entrances, the entrance of

Bab-ol-Rahmeh (with two doors) and the other

one Bab-ol-Nesa (with two doors) and twelve

small two post-doors which are connected to six

escalators and to the stone-step of the fourteen

mentioned doors .There are two outer sloping

entrances at the underground floor with six stairs to

out and one stair to the mosque.

Walls, Ceilings and Stone-Pavements

Ceilings are made of industrial granite and they

are mostly in square shapes , small and big. The

length of the big one is six meters. The outer walls are

all covered by natural granite and a little industrial

granite is used for external appearance, and the

walls are faced with marble .The green brick

(western and Arabic brick) with golden cover is

used on the top of entrances to beautify the

appearance , and the gilded tiles are seen in

frames and walls up to height of three meters

have been covered by local granite and in the upper

appearance the black granite is used. Due to the

importance of the seven entrances and the

necessity of being visible , the floor of entrance

halls are covered with white marble and an octagonal

star in the middle of it.