The second most important city in Islam, Madinah (also known as Medinah, Medina or al Madīnat al Munawwarah) is home to the Masjid-e-Nabawi or 'The Mosque of The Prophet'. Muslims believe that praying once in the Mosque of the Prophet is equal to praying at least 1000 times in any other mosque.
A shot taken from the front of the mosque with the famed green dome (below), called 'Dome of the Prophet'. It was built in 1817 and painted green in 1839. The area around the dome is the the site of the original ancient mosque. The mosque was then extended all around over the centuries by many Islamic rulers.
An aerial view of the gigantic mosque. Gigantic. And I mean GIGANTIC. (Source: Internet)
It is so huge that taking a shot of just one elevation of the mosque is impossible!
Day shot of the back entrance. The large square before the mosque can get quite hot but it gets cooler as you approach the air-conditioned mosque.
Night shot. Breathtaking...
The Mosque was built on a site adjacent to the Prophet Muhammad's (SAW) home. The site of his home, which is at the front part of the mosque, is also where the final resting place of the Prophet is located.
Tomb of the Prophet (above, source: internet). Muslims who are performing the umrah and hajj are required to visit the tomb and mosque before heading off to or returning from Mecca. Prayers (salaam) are offered at the tombs of the Prophet and his two closest friends (also the earliest Muslim leaders), Abu Bakar and Umar ibn al-Khattab. Other tombs of the Prophet's family members and friends can be found in the graveyard beside the mosque.
Note: cameras are strictly not allowed into the mosque (especially for women; somehow, they are more stringent towards the female visitors and will do a thorough search through the bags. Probably because it is to protect the other female counterparts' privacy).
However, my dad took shots of the interior with his camera-phone though. The interior of the mosque is extremely grand and beautiful, plus its entirely air-conditioned. High ceilings with gravity-defying huge domes and labyrinths of long corridors with wide arches will astound you and overwhelm your perception of grandeur.
Numerous large open courtyards greet you as you walk from one end of the mosque to the other (it hardly rains there, so courtyards are feasible). If it does rain, large contractable umbrella-like structures can automatically open up to provide the necessary shelter.
A shrewd eye can observe that different parts of the mosque have been built in different styles due to the different time periods the extensions were built. The area near the tomb is the oldest part of the mosque and has a large concentration of significant monuments and pillars.
A small site stretching from the Prophet's tomb to his pulpit, for example, is named ar-Rawdah an-Nabawiyah. It is a highly holy as the Prophet himself has proclaimed that the area there is as close you can get to the heavens and that supplications and prayers uttered here are never rejected. It can only accomodate less than a hundred people (I got to squeeze there to pray, not once but twice).
Note: Ladies who wish to visit the Prophet's tomb need to abide by the visiting hours (9-11am daily) as they will shut off the area to any male visitors or security guards. So it can get a bit violent and 'havoc' when the gates are opened for the female visitors (mad rush as my Mum and my cousins found out). Plus, they had a few 'racist' stories to share when they came back from the first visit too. It took them two trials in two mornings before they finally got to see the tombs. Plus, praying at the ar-Rawdah for the womenfolk can be extremely hard and close to impossible as the space opened to the female worshippers is extremely narrow...
To learn more about the mosque's rich history, see here.
Our hotel was very close to the mosque so most of my relatives and I didn't miss praying any of the five prayers at the mosque daily.
The second holiest mosque in Madinah is the Masjid Quba (Quba Mosque). What's so special about it? Try, it was the first mosque to be built, ever.
Of course, the mosque you can see now has been the renovated and rebuilt since the Prophet's time over the centuries. Its first stones were positioned by the Prophet himself on his emigration from the city of Mecca to Medina. It was also here where the calender of Islam was created.
It is said that offering two Raka'ahs of nafl (sunat) prayers in the Quba Mosque is equal to performing one umrah. So you can offer the prayers in the mosque on behalf of someone else to present them with the pahla (grace) of performing the umrah.
Another mosque to visit is the Masjid Jumaat (Friday Mosque). It was here where the first Friday prayers were performed.
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