The masjid of Quba: A masjid founded upon piety. The Quba Mosque is the oldest mosque and one of the first in Islam.
At Quba, the first stop on the road to Medina, the Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- remained for fourteen days as guest at the quarters of the Ibn Awf clan. It was then that the illustrious Masjid of Quba was built, with the Noble Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- personally taking active part in the construction.
Quba is the first mosque of Islam and holds even greater importance for the fact of having been built during the Hegira. It is described in the Quran as:
“…a masjid founded on piety from the very first day.”[1] (at-Tawbah, 108)
Abu Hurayrah –Allah be well-pleased with him- states that the part of the ayah that says:
“…in it are men who love that they should be purified; and Allah loves those who purify themselves”, (at-Tawbah, 108) refers to the locals of Quba. (Tirmidhi, Tafsir, 9/3099; Abu Dawud, Taharah, 23/44; Ibn Majah, Taharah, 357)
When the first group of Migrants reached Quba, they prepared the area formerly used by the Ibn Awf clan to dry their dates, for salat. Leading the first Migrants in their salat was Salim, the freed slave of Abu Huzayfah, a beautiful reciter of the Quran with more knowledge of it than anyone else there.[2]
Extending the area where the Migrants performed salat, the Noble Messenger -upon him blessings and peace- had the Masjid of Quba built. The square-shaped Masjid had originally a length of 32 meters on each side. The Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- asked the locals to bring stones, the first of which he placed in the Qiblah with his own hands, thereafter instructing Abu Bakr and Omar -Allah be well-pleased with them- to place the stones in the same order.
By far, it was Ammar ibn Yasir -Allah be well-pleased with him- who showed the most effort in the construction of the Mosque, for which he was called then on as ‘the first mosque builder’ in Islam.[3]
The poems Abdullah ibn Rawaha –Allah be well-pleased with him- recited while working would help Muslims unwind amid their tiredness.[4]
Saad al-Qurazi took up the responsibilities as muadhdhin of the Mosque.
Like the Masjid’un-Nabawi and the other nine mosques in Medina, Quba provided a base for ongoing teaching activities, which the Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- supervised each time he attended the mosque.[5]
On Saturdays, the Blessed Messenger -upon him blessings and peace- would go to Quba, either on a mount or on foot, and offer two rakats of salat at the Mosque[6], something he also advised fellow Muslims to do:
“Whoever makes a thorough wudu, goes to the Masjid of Quba and performs two rakats of salat, shall receive the rewards of an umrah (voluntary pilgrimage).” (Ibn Majah, Iqamah, 197; Nasai, Masajid, 9)
Omar –Allah be well-pleased with him- also had the habit of visiting the Mosque on Mondays and Thursdays during his caliphate, saying he would not think twice in steering his camel to the mosque even it were a great distance away.[7]
The Masjid of Quba underwent extensions during the caliphates of Othman –Allah be well-pleased with him- and Omar ibn Abdulaziz, not to mention numerous renovations thereafter. Repaired also during the reign of Sultan Mahmud II in the year 1829 (H. 1245), the single minaret and flat-roofed mosque was torn down by the Saudi Arabian government and reconstructed with a dome and four minarets.
[1] Omar –Allah be well-pleased with him- was to later adduce the Quranic expression ‘the very first day’ as proof, when making the Hegira the starting date of the calendar.
[2] Ibn Saad, III, 87; IV, 311.
[3] Ibn Hisham, II, 114.
[4] Kâmil Mîras, Tecrid Tercemesi, X, 106.
[5] Hamîdullâh, İslâm Peygamberi, II, 771.
[6] Bukhari, Fadlu’s-Salat 3, 4; Muslim, Hajj, 516.
[7] Ibn Saad, I, 245.
Source: Osman Nuri Topbaş, The Prophet Muhammed Mustafa the Elect, Erkam Publications
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