Masjid al-Nabawi (The Prophet's Mosque)

The mosque the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ built in Madinah on arrival — the first institution of the Muslim state, built before his own house. It stands where his camel, let loose “for Allah has charged it,” chose to sit.

Building (EP 030)

• The site — an open date-drying ground owned by two orphans, Sahl and Suhayl — was bought (he refused it as a gift); date-trees were cut and two old graves relocated (a fiqh precedent for both, given legitimate need).
• The Prophet ﷺ carried bricks himself, reciting “O Allah, there is no good but the good of the Hereafter; so have mercy on the Ansar and the Muhajirun.” Built in ~2 weeks, large for its time (~100–130 ft).
• Three public doors: Bab al-Rahma (south), Bab Jibril (west), and Bab al-Nisa’ (east — for women, at Umar’s suggestion), plus private house-doors — including Abu Bakr’s (left open by the Prophet’s ﷺ deathbed instruction).
• The roof was shade only (it leaked in rain); the shaded northern portion was al-Suffa, and the original qibla faced Jerusalem before it turned to Mecca.

Blessings & the crying stump

• A prayer here equals 1,000 elsewhere; “between my house and my minbar is one of the Gardens of Jannah” (the Rawdah).
• The crying stump (Hanana): the palm-trunk the Prophet ﷺ used to lean on wept audibly when a stepped minbar replaced it, until he embraced it — “had I not, it would have wept till the Day of Judgment.” Al-Hasan al-Basri: if a tree yearned so for him ﷺ, how much more should we.

Later expansions

Untouched by Abu Bakr; solidified and roofed by Umar; enlarged ~50% by Uthman; and under al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik (~96 AH) rebuilt and enlarged in all directions, incorporating A’ishah’s (rha) house — where the Prophet ﷺ is buried (in his house, not in the mosque originally) — over the objection of scholars like Sa’id ibn Jubayr.

Cross-references

Madinah (Yathrib) · The Hijrah (Emigration to Madinah) · Muhammad ﷺ · Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (ra) · Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (ra) · Umar ibn al-Khattab (ra) · Salah (the Five Daily Prayers) · Seerah Timeline

Sources

• S005 — Yasir Qadhi Seerah EP 030. Draws on Sahih Bukhari & Muslim, Musnad Ahmad, al-Bayhaqi (Dala’il).