The prophet (SAW) had been praying towards the Ka’bah, Baitullah, while in Makkah. Some narrations mention that three years before he migrated, while he was still in Makkah, he was commanded to face towards Bayt Al-Maqdis as well. So, he would stand in such a way that he was also facing Bayt Al-Maqdis behind it. The wall that has the Rukn Al-Yamani and the Rukn Al-Hajar Al-Aswad; if you face this wall, you will be facing Baitullah and Bayt Al-Maqdis at the same time, so the prophet (SAW) would offer his salah there. Now, after coming to Madinah, it was not possible to face the Ka’bah and Bayt Al-Maqdis, so the commandment from Allah (SWT) was that he should face Bayt Al-Maqdis, meaning Al-Quds in Jerusalem. So, for the first 17 months and 3 days, the prophet (SAW) continued praying towards Bayt Al-Maqdis.
We were talking about the construction of the masjid. The masjid was constructed in such a way that the Qibla was towards the north, so all the pictures that you have seen of Masjid An-Nabwi – imagine the masjid facing the exact opposite direction. Of course, it was nowhere near as large as it is now; it was a small masjid, and the initial construction was probably somewhere around 70 yards by 60 yards, almost a perfect square, and only later did expansions start. It was expanded even in the time of the Prophet (SAW), then Umar (RA), then the time of Uthman (RA), and so on and so forth. So, the prophet (SAW) is facing in this direction; then, one day, Jibreel (AS) came and told the prophet (SAW) that he could now face the Ka’bah. This was something the prophet (SAW) was looking forward to, and this was something the Qur’an references many times; the opening of the second Juz of the Qur’an in Surah Baqarah talks about this in a lot of detail. The prophet (SAW) would look up in anticipation of Jibreel (AS), that he would come and give him the instruction to face the Ka’bah. Allah (SWT) states that the heavens saw the prophet (SAW) look up in wait for the message, and that it was just a matter time before he would be turned to the Qibla that he was waiting to turn towards. Of course, it was the Qibla of Ibrahim (AS) – the Baitullah.
Then the command came. “Turn your face in the direction of Baitullah.” Some narrations mention that Jibreel (AS), when he came, cleared the way and allowed the prophet (SAW) to see all the way up the Ka’bah itself, as if he could see it directly in front of him, and that is where he started the salah. This happened in, most likely, the salah of Asr, but some say Zhuhr. Regardless, it took some time for the news to come out. One sahaba passed by another group and saw that they were still praying to Bayt Al-Maqdis, and called out, “I swear that I prayed the last salah with the prophet (SAW) and that he was commanded to turn towards Baitullah.” So, that group of people turned their direction exactly around 180 degrees in salah to the opposite side. They were facing north and they turned all the way around in their salah. They did not delay or wait for the salah to finish to have a discussion with the sahaba; as soon as the person said that he prayed with the prophet (SAW), they turned right then and there. The Imam went from the front of the masjid all the way to the back, and all of the people behind him turned around as well. That is known, even today, as the masjid of Qiblatain, and if you go to that masjid, you will see that it has the mihrab towards the front, but if you look in the back, they have also drawn the mihrab to show that they used to pray in that direction in that masjid until the command to do otherwise was revealed to the prophet (SAW).
This was, now, almost two years of facing Bayt Al-Maqdis. Now, at some point, people saw that the prophet (SAW) was giving all of his talks standing up, and sometimes, he would talk for a long time. So, they said that he should have something to lean on, so they cut a thin sapling of wood, dug a hole, and embedded it in the ground so that he could lean against it while he was talking, the prophet (SAW) would hold onto this tree trunk that had been installed for him. Then, someone offered to build a mimbar for the prophet (SAW). Some narrations mention that someone came and offered it, or a woman came and offered it, saying, “I have a servant who is an excellent carpenter; can we construct a mimbar for you?” To which the prophet (SAW), in any case, gave permission, so they went and got wood for the forest specifically for that mimbar and it was constructed with specifically three steps. Then, once the mimbar was brought and put in the masjid and the prophet (SAW) went to sit on it to speak to the people, all of a sudden everyone heard crying. The people wondered who was crying and why, and upon looking around them, they found that the tree trunk that he had been leaning on for support was crying, that the prophet (SAW) had now left it and that he could no longer hold onto it for support. The sahaba (RA) actually heard it crying like a baby. So, the prophet (SAW) held it and comforted it until its crying stopped. Later, that tree trunk was removed, and some narrations mention that it was buried right there under the mimbar, having a place close to the prophet (SAW). When the masjid was reconstructed in later times and the floor and other things were dug up, that piece of wood was extracted and Ubayy ibn Ka’b (RA) took it and kept it in his house.
So, it was not so much about the fanciness of the structure, but every spot of that place had some kind of important event about it. There were some pillars in the structure that also had its own significance; there was a pillar that people would go to just to donate, there was a pillar where a sahabi who made a mistake tied themselves to and said, “I will not untie myself nor let me be untied until the prophet (SAW) forgives me.” He did, in fact, stay there tied until the prophet (SAW) forgave him. Every spot in there has a story. Imagine the emotions and feelings that the sahaba (RA) experienced every time they entered or left the masjid, or something related to the masjid happened. These were, in fact, people whose hearts were always in the masjid. May Allah (SWT) also give us attachment to the masjid of the prophet (SAW) and also the masajid that we have access to today.
