Prophet's Mosque

Prophet's Mosque

Upon arrival in Madinah, one of the first things the Prophet Muhammad wished to do was build a mosque. The story is told that the Prophet Muhammad let his camel loose, and waited to see where it would wander and then stop to rest. The place where the camel stopped was selected as the location of the mosque, which is known as the "Prophet's Mosque" (Masjed An-Nawabi). The entire Muslim community (original residents of Madinah, as well as the migrants who had moved from Makkah) came together to help build the mosque out of mud bricks and tree trunks. The Prophet Muhammad's apartment was constructed on the eastern side, adjacent to the mosque.

The new mosque soon becamse the center of the city's religious, political, and economic life. Throughout Islamic history, the mosque has been expanded and improved upon, until it is now 100 times larger than its original size and can accommodate more than half a million worshippers at a time. A large green dome now covers the Prophet Muhammad's residential quarters, where he is buried along with the first two Caliphs, Abu Bakr and Omar. Over two million Muslim pigrims visit the Prophet's Mosque each year.