Al-Sajda Mosque

Sajda Mosque is one of the old mosques in Medina, which was built in the prayer place of the Prophet Muḥammad(a). This mosque is located in the north of Masjid al-Nabī and the intersection of Abū Dhar Street and Al-Maṭār Street. This mosque is also known as Al-Buḥayr Mosque, Abū Dhar Mosque and ʾAswāf Mosque.

location

This mosque is located 900 meters north of Masjid al-Nabī at the intersection of Abū Dhar Street and Al-Maṭār Street.

story of the mosque

Prophet Muḥammad(a) prayed two rakʿats in this mosque. The prostration of the Prophet(a) in the second rakʿat was so long that the companions thought that he had passed away. When he got up from prostration, he said: Gabriel came to me and said: Whoever from your nation sends blessings upon you, God sends blessings upon him; I prostrated for gratitude.

Mosque names

This mosque has been called by different names. Because of the prostration of the Prophet, which was mentioned above, it is called the Mosque of Sajda or the Mosque of shukr(gratitude). Because it was next to garden of Al-Buḥayrī, it was called Al-Buḥayr or Al-Buḥayrī Mosque, and because it was close to the ʾAswāf palm-grove or on the way to Al-Sāfila Gardens, it was also called the ʾAswāf or Sāfila Mosque. It is not exactly clear why and when this mosque became known as Abū Dhar Mosque, but Maṭarī, a local historian of Medina, mentioned it, as Abū Dhar Mosque in the 8th/14th century. Samhudī doubted the correctness of this naming, but the name of Abū Dhar Mosque has been widely used up to now.

History of the mosque

Maṭarī(d.741 AH/1340-1) writes in the book of Al-Taʿrīf bimā ʾansat al-hijra that on Sāfila Road, which is the eastern road to Ḥamza Sayyid al-Shuhda's grave, there is a very small mosque, which is called Abī Dhar Mosque. At the end of the 9th/15th century, Samhudī(d. 911 AH/1505-6) described the mosque as a small building with dimensions of 8 cubits by 8 cubits and believes that this mosque was located near a palm-grove called Al-Buḥayr. Another report from the year 1303/1885-6 AD describes the Abū Dhar Ghifārī mosque as a small mosque without a roof near the Ṣadaqa spring. ʿAbdu-l Quddūs Anṣārī, also spoke about this mosque in his book. He described Al-Buḥayr Mosque as a very small square mosque with a length and width of 4 meters and according to his report, the walls of this mosque were one meter high. Sayyid Aḥmad Yāsīn al-Khayārī, In his book, which was first published in 1410/1989-90, spoke about the reconstruction of the mosque in a beautiful way and that this mosque was under the supervision of the endowment department of Saudi Arabia. In his book, ʾIlyās ʿAbdu-l Ghanī also considered the reconstructed mosque to be 18 meters long and 10.13 meters wide.

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references

• ʿAbdu-l Ghanī, Muḥammad ʾIlyās. Al-Masājid al-Atharīyya fī al- madīna al-munawwara. Medina: [n.p], 2000.
• Anṣārī, ʿAbdu-l Quddūs al-. Āthār al-madīna al-munawwara. Medina: Maktabat al-Salafīyya, 1973.
• Khayārī, Sayyid Aḥmad Yāsīn al-.Tārīkh maʿālimal-madīna al-munawwara qadīman wa ḥadīthan. Riyadh: al-Amāna alʿāmma li-liḥtifāl miʾat ʿām ʿalā tʾsīs al-mamlika al- ʿarabiyya al-suʿūdiyya, 1419 AH/1999.
• Maṭarī, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-. Al-Taʿrīf bimā ʾansat al-hijra min maʿālim dār al-hijra. Riyadh: Dār al-malik ʿAbdu-l ʿAzīz, 2005.
• Najafī, Sayyid Muḥammad Bāqir. Madīna shināsī. Tehran: Mashʿar, 1387 sh.
• Samhudī, ʿAlī b. ʿAbd Allāh. Wafāʾ al-wafā bi akhbār dar al-Muṣṭafā. Edited by Muḥammad Muḥyi al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd. Beirut: 1984.