08. Minbar ki taareekh [The History of the Pulpit]

✿ The Pulpit and the Mihrab inside the Mosque

✿The History of the Pulpit

 ✿The Pulpit and the Mihrab inside the Mosque

The Mosque of the Messenger of Allah was roofed with date- palm trunks, that is the trunks were like pillars for it and the Prophet (ﷺ) used to stand by one of the trunks and the standing was sometimes long for him and so one of the women among the Ansar said: “O Messenger of Allah! Shall we make for you a pulpit with three steps from the tamar tree?” So, when Friday came he ascended the pulpit whereupon the trunk wept. It has been reported in Sahih Al Bukhari on the authority of Jabir bin ‘Abdullah(رضي الله عنه) that on Fridays, the Prophet(ﷺ) used to stand by a tree or a date palm and a woman or a man from among the Ansar said: “O Messenger of Allah! Shall we not make for you a pulpit?” And he said: “If you wish.” So, they made a pulpit for him, then when Friday came, he ascended the pulpit and the date palm cried out like the crying of a child, then the Prophet(ﷺ) descended and embraced it and it began to moan like the moaning of a child which has been quieted and he said: “It was crying because of the Dhikr[98]which it used to hear next to it.[99] And in the Hadith of Anas(رضي الله عنه) reported by Ibn Khuzaimah, it is narrated: “The wood yearned with the yearning of the grief-stricken.” And in another narration attributed to him reported by Ad-Darimi: “That trunk lowed like the lowing of a bull.” And in the Hadith of Ubai bin Ka’b(رضي الله عنه) reported by Ahmad, Ad-Darimi and Ibn Majah: “And when he passed by it, the trunk lowed until it cracked and split.[100] And the Hadith of the yearning of the tree trunk is well known and widely reported and the narrations of it are reported from many sources and it has been narrated by the scholars of Hadith and more than ten Companions reported it.[101]

✿The History of the Pulpit

The pulpit was made in the eighth year following the Hijrah and it had three steps and the Prophet(ﷺ) used to sit on it and put his feet on the second step. And when Abu Bakr(رضي الله عنه) was appointed Caliph, he used to stand on the second step and place his feet on the lowest step (when he sat), out of respect for Allah’s Messenger(ﷺ). Then when ‘Umar(رضي الله عنه) was appointed Caliph, he used to stand on the lowest step and place his feet on the ground when he sat. Then when ‘Uthman(رضي الله عنه) was appointed Caliph, he did that for six years, then he ascended and sat in the place of the Prophet(ﷺ). And when Mu’awiyah(رضي الله عنه) performed Hajj, he increased the number of steps and they raised it up on them and the pulpit became nine steps to the sitting place. The Companions(رضي الله عنهم) used to sit on the seventh step, which was the first step of the Prophet’s pulpit. And the pulpit remained thus until the Mosque was burnt in the year 654 AH (1256 CE). In its place a pulpit was made by Al-Muzaffar, the King of Yemen. After that, the pulpit was replaced several times, one of them being that which was sent by Sultan Murad III, the Ottoman ruler, as a gift in the year 998 AH, and it is very beautiful and precisely made and it deserves to be pointed out that this pulpit is in existence until now.[102]

[98: Dhikr: Mentioning Allah’s Name.]

[99: Al-Bukhari (3584).]

[100: Fath Al-Bari in explanation of Hadith no. 3585.]

[101: Wafa’ Al-Wafa (2/388-390).]

[102: Tarikh Al-Masjid An-Nabawi Ash-Sharif by Muhammad Ilyas ‘Abdul-Ghani (p. 119-120).]

✿What the Prophet(ﷺ) said about the Pulpit

What has been said about the pulpit confirms its status and its elevated importance, for as it is reported, Abu Hurairah(رضي الله عنه) narrated that the Prophet(ﷺ) said:

مَا بَيْنَ بَيْنِي وَمِنْبَرِي رَوْضَةٌ مِنْ رِيَاضِ الْجُنَّةِ، وَمِنْبَرِي عَلَى حَوْضِي .

“What lies between my house and my pulpit is a Garden from among the Gardens of Paradise and my pulpit is over my pool.[103]”[104]

And his words: “a Garden from among the Gardens of Paradise,” that is, like a Garden from among the Gardens of Paradise due to the sending down of mercy and the attainment of happiness which comes from remembrance of Allâh there; or the meaning is that worship therein leads to Paradise; or its meaning is the apparent one, that it is a Garden from among the Gardens of Paradise, and that that place will be transferred to Paradise on the Day of Resurrection. This is the sum of the explanations given by the scholars for this Hadith.[105]” Another proof of its elevated status is that whoever swore to a lie next to it, is punished with a more severe chastisement, for Allah’s Messenger(ﷺ) permitted swearing next to the pulpit, but he promised the severest of punishments for one who lies in this elevated location; it has been reported in Sunan Abu Dawud in the Hadith of Jabir(رضي الله عنه), in a Marfu[106] form:

لَا يَحْلِفُ أَحَدٌ عِنْدَ مِنْبَرِي هَذَا عَلَى يَمِينٍ آلِمَةٍ، وَلَوْ عَلَى سِوَاكٍ أَخْضَرَ إِلَّا تَبَوَّاً مَقْعَدَهُ مِنَ النَّارِ ، أَوْ وَجَبَتْ لَهُ النَّارُ

“None will swear next to this, my pulpit to a sinful oath, even upon a green Siwak, except that he prepares his place in the Fire, (or he said:) he must enter the Fire.[107]

(Also reported by Ibn Khuzaimah, Ibn Hibban and Al-Hakim, all of whom declared it to be authentic.)

And An-Nasa’i reported with a chain of reliable narrators, on the authority of Abu Umamah bin Tha’labah in a Marfu’ form:

“Whoever swore a false oath next to this, my pulpit, in order to acquire the property of a Muslim man, the curse of Allah and that of the angels and all of mankind will be upon him and Allâh will accept neither obligatory acts nor supererogatory acts from him (on the Day of Resurrection).”

[103: That is, Al-Kawthar. See Surat Al-Kawthar(108:1).]

[104: Al-Bukhari (1888) and Muslim (1391).]

[105: Fath Al-Bari, explanation of Hadith no. 1888.]

[106: Marfu: traceable.]

[107: Abu Dawud (3246).]

✿The Prophet’s Mihrab

After his arrival in Al-Madinah, the Prophet(ﷺ) prayed for a while towards Baitul-Maqdis[108] until the revelation of this Verse:

فَوَلِ وَجْهَكَ شَطْرَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ الآية

“So turn your face in the direction of Al-Masjid Al- Haram (at Makkah). And wheresoever you people are, turn your faces (in prayer) in that direction. Certainly, the people who were given the Scripture (i.e., Jews and the Christians) know well that, that (your turning towards the direction of the Ka’bah at Makkah in prayers) is the truth from their Lord. And Allâh is not unaware of what they do.” [Al-Baqarah 2:144]

Then he turned towards the Ka’bah and he prayed for ten days or more towards the Pillar of ‘Aishah[109] then he went forward to his place of prayer. And there was no hollowed out Mihrab in the time of the Prophet (ﷺ), nor in the time of the

Rightly-Guided Caliphs. The first person to introduce it in this form was ‘Umar bin ‘Abdul-‘Aziz in the year 91 AH, and it was known as the Prophet’s Mihrab, because the Prophet(ﷺ) used to pray on or near this spot, towards a palm-tree trunk. And in the place where he used to pray, there is a pillar adjoining the Mihrab on which it is written: ‘Al-Ustuwanah Al-Mukhallaqah’. So, whoever sought to stand next to this Mihrab, the noble prayer place will be on his right, so he should seek the western side of that place which is hollowed out, so that the place is on his left side and that is the place where he(ﷺ) stood to pray. And because of the placing of this Mihrab, the person who prostrates in this place will be placing his forehead in the place where his feet used to be during prayer.[110] Ibn Abu Az-Zinad said, defining the location of the trunk towards which the Prophet(ﷺ) used to pray: “The trunk was in the place of Al-Ustuwanah Al- Mukhallaqah which is on the right side of the Mihrab of the Prophet(ﷺ)[111]. The location of the Mihrab which is present now dates back to the time of Sultan Quaitbay in the year 888 AH, and this Mihrab was completely restored in the year 1404 AH, during the rule of King Fahd, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

[108: Baitul-Maqdis: Jerusalem.]

[109: The Pillar of’Aishah: It is located in the center of Ar-Rawdah.]

[110: Tarikh Al-Masjid An-Nabawi Ash-Sharif by Muhammad Ilyas ‘Abdul-Ghani (p. 104-105).]

[111: Akhbar Madinahtir-Rasul (p. 79)]

REFERENCE:

Book: “History of Madina Munawwarah”

Prepared by a group of Scholars  under the supervision of  Shaikh Safir ur Rahman Mubarak puri. (Darussalam)