The Mosque

Every mosque attempts to be modelled on the first mosque built and directed by Muhammad in Medina.

The functions of a mosque cannot be understood without considering the first mosque and its role and rule in the first Muslim community.

When Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina — now known as Hijra which has an enormous spiritual and political significance in Islam — the majority of its inhabitants were not Muslims. It had a large Jewish population, both proselytised Arabs, Jews and Christians, and a large majority of pagan Arabs.

Muhammad built a mosque on arrival in Medina even before he built his own house to show its utter importance.

As the Shari’a unfolded in Medina, the mosque was to become not only a building where religious teachings were taught but also much more.

1. It was the first madrassa (an Islamic seminary) where Islamic doctrine was taught and whereby the companions were raised and instructed by Muhammad.
2. It was the pulpit from which spiritual admonitions were given and encouragement to resist the non-Islamic influence through jihad.
3. It was here that the jihad operations were discussed, directed and its commanders appointed, both by Muhammad and his successors.
4. It was from here where official Islamic delegations were sent both by Muhammad and his successors.
5. It was where the delegations and the representatives of the tribes were received.
6. It was in this mosque that the pledges of loyalty of the Arab tribes to Muhammad were received.
7. It was where the affairs of the Islamic state were conducted and, as such at the time, was the HQ of the first Islamic state as well as a mosque.
8. It was here jihad was proclaimed and from here the Muslim armies were sent to conquer the world.
9. It was in this mosque that Muhammad’s companions were recognised and honoured for their achievements and were encouraged to pursue the enemies of Islam and eliminate all opposition.
10. It was here that Muhammad and his successors, Abu Baker, Omar, Uthman and Ali appointed judges for the different regions and the commanders of military troops, and where jihad detachments were dispatched and high-ranking state officials and tax collectors were sent.
11. It was here the contracts, pacts and treaties were commissioned.
12. It was here where the Islamic Shari’a unfolded, where the binding, and loosing, permitting and prohibiting was declared.
13. It was here the superiority of the Muslims and the inferiority of non-Muslims was declared.
14. It was here the supremacy of man over a woman and the inequality among people was taught.
15. Saddest of all, it was here where death sentences were issued to those who had opposed Muhammad or had spoken of him unfavourably and from here where the ardent soldiers set off to implement those death sentences.
16. It was in that mosque those culprits who eliminated Muhammad’s enemies were highly praised and honoured by their prophet. Examples include:
a) Omeyer bin Al Khatem, who brutally killed A’sma bint Marwan as she was breast-feeding her baby.
b) Abdallah bin Anis, for assassinating Sufyan bin Khalid.
c) Saleem bin Amaeyer, for killing Abu Affaq the Jew.
d) Abdallah bin Attiq, for killing a Jew called Ibn Abi Haqqiq.
e) Ali bin Abi Talib, for killing A’Nader ibn Harith.
17. Finally, it was from this mosque that Muslim armies marched out to conquer and thus change the world.

The contemporary mosque

All Muslims are under obligations and required to emulate Muhammad in word and deeds. For this is a divine decree and an indispensable doctrinal pillar of Islam.

Muhammad spent 13 years of a total of 23 years of his mission in Mecca. During these 13 years, he never ever built a mosque here or described any of its functions.

Although prayer is mentioned in the Meccan section of the Qur’an, there was no Islamic form of prayer in Mecca as we know it today. This came in Medina.

Naturally, then, a question arises: how and where did the early Muslim community pray during the first 13 years of early Islam?

Muslims know very little, if anything, regarding the status of a mosque during the Islamic formative period in Mecca, for this remains shrouded in secrecy.

Muslim scholars have attempted to explain away the absence of a mosque in Mecca during the early Islamic period by saying that the Ka’aba was the mosque but, as it was under the control of the pagan Arabs, Muhammad and his companions could not pray there until it was purged and purified from all the idols in and around it. This required political powers that he did not have then, neither had he the military force that it required to subdue the pagans. So in their view, it had to come in stages, the revelations in Medina, building of the first mosque, obtaining political power through military strength, then conquering Mecca.

It is clear that the very first mosque in Medina was first and foremost a political office: its combined function was a socio-religious as well as a socio-political outlet. Based on this and the pattern set by Muhammad of his very first mosque, a modern mosque must model itself on that of Medina.

Examples from history

Hence, besides the normal socio-religious and socio-educational functions of a mosque, we would be considering a mosque in its political role. Here are some examples from different periods of recent history and from different locations of what Islamic scholars have said regarding a mosque’s political role.

Cairo. In that very fashion, as Muhammad sent forth his armies for jihad from the mosque in Medina, so the scholars of Al Azhar Mosque, Abadallah al Sharqawi and Ahmed Aldardair, led the Egyptians against the French occupation. The Al Azhar also had a major role in the 1919 Revolt against the British, so much so that the British forces were stationed outside Al Azhar Mosque to prevent any of its scholars or students from taking further part in the demonstrations.

So later did Hassan Al Banna and his men engage in jihad and, later still, the Gamma Islamiya to such an extent that the Egyptian government was forced to close down many mosques.

Transjordan. In 1936, the Kasim Revolution was inaugurated in al Istiklal Mosque in Palestine. It was in this mosque that all their secret organisation and all its various committees were housed.

West Bank and Gaza It was the mosque that played the major role in whipping up the first and the second Intifada. The Khatibees, the sermon preachers of the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, had a central role in inciting jihad against Jews and the state of Israel.

An independent news report of November 30 2003 points out that most of the mosques in the West Bank and Gaza are centres for instigators of violence against Israel rallied on through the Friday sermons and distributing hate leaflets and materials published by Hamas and Islamic jihad. The report particularly focuses on Al E’in Mosque in Ramallah as a model and leader in organisation and recruitment of suicidal mission candidates. One of the activists — a wanted terrorist — was even sheltered in Abdel Nasser Mosque in Ramallah. The mosque continues to play a major role in the present Intifada.

Finsbury Park Mosque

The events and activities that took place both at the Finsbury Park Mosque and the New Jersey Mosque are not new. Outwardly it may look like an indictment of the personal activities of Abu Hamza and that of Sheikh Omar Abel Rahman. But the more one examines this the more one comes across that same recurrence in so many other places. So it is in Iraq today where the mosques are at the heart of inciting violence and the killing of the enemies of Islam, particularly Americans and Europeans. What is seen and termed as Islamic resurgence would not have been possible without the involvement of the mosque.

It is no different in Egypt, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Sudan, Algeria, Bangladesh and elsewhere. Wherever one looks, the mosque continues to play its role as prescribed by the first mosque. The examples given from different periods and countries demonstrate the consistency of the argument.

Political role of the mosque according to the Shari’a

Regarding the mosque and its political role, a fatwa, issued by Sheikh Yousif Al Qardawi on October 29 2001, states: ‘…in the life of the prophet there was no distinction between what the people call sacred and secular or religion and politics, and he had no place other than the mosque for politics and other related issues. So that he would establish this precedent for his religion and for the world.

‘The mosque at the time of the prophet was his propagation centre, the headquarters of the state, as it was for his successors, the rightly guided Khalifas, the mosque was their base for all their activities political as well as non-political. Politics as a science is one of the best disciplines, and as a practice and career it’s the most honourable. The surprising thing is that it’s the politicians, who are totally immersed in it from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet, who are enquiring if the mosque should embark and leap into political affairs. Politics in itself is neither vice, nor evil in itself, according [to] Islam. As Muslims it is part of our religion, for it is doctrine and worship. A system for the whole of life… and the mission of the mosque as required by correct Islam is not an isolation from the politics in this sense, but the mosque is to command the Muslims on all that would produce good in their religion and world and through the mosque the people learn the truth and goodness. The mosque must then have a role in guiding the nation and informing her about the critical issues and making her see her enemies. From ancient times the mosque has had a role in jihad for the sake of Allah, resisting the enemies of this religion from the invading occupiers. That blessed Intifada in the land of the prophets, Palestine, started from none other but the mosques and its first call came from the minarets and it was first known as the mosque revolution. The mosque’s role in the Afghan jihad, and every Islamic jihad cannot be denied.’

This fatwa is online at the following address: http://www.qaradawi.net/site/ topics/article.asp?cu+no=2&item_no=3598&version=1&template_id=230&par ent_id=17

Qardawi’s fatwa is rooted in the Islamic shari’a and it is a clear directive to the call to violence under the banner of resistance. What Qardawi is stating is that the mosque has been and will continue to be the same, and that the minarets will continue to call for jihad.

This article is an extract from the booklet The Mosque and its Role in Society by Belteshazzar and Abednego. It is available from http://www.pilcrowpress@hotmail.com

Its functions and roles in society?

The contemporary mosque

Examples from history

Finsbury Park Mosque

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