Who decides which place is a masjid.
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
(May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked
this question:
ASAKWW and Happy new year.
Recently, my friends and I were discussing how does or
who decides a building get a designation of a masjid? Final point of contention
was that there is always a representative from the time of SA (eg. Imam, Dai
etc) that has the authority in this era to perform the task. This basically implies
that majority of the Islamic mosques are not officially approved masjids!
We also know that reciting immamat prayers in different masjids (al-aqsa,
al-haram, local masjid etc) gets you certain amount of sawabs and when praying
in a hall or alone you get 12 and 1 sawaabs respectively.
Questions
1. Who decided on the number of sawabs a person will receive when praying in
different masjids?
2. Who declares in Islam whether a building is a masjid
or not? In Bohra sect, Syedna Dr. Burhanuddin does the opening ceremony and
declares that this is a masjid for prayers (waqaf).
(There may be some grammatical and spelling
errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from
questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in
confidentiality.)
Answer:
Who decides which
place is a masjid
In the name of Allah,
We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah
guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide
them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah
Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the
seal of His Messengers.
Your Question: ….how does or who decides a building get a
designation of a masjid?
Allah says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 72 Surah Jinn verse 18:
And the ‘masaajids’
are for Allah Alone. Therefore do not
call upon anyone else in them along with Allah.
Allah Says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 9 Surah Taubah verse 18:
18 The masaajids of Allah shall be visited and maintained by such as
believe in Allah and the Last Day, establish regular prayers, practice regular
charity, and fear none except Allah. It
is they who are expected to be on true guidance.
Allah Says in the Holy
Quran Chapter 24 Surah Noor verses 35-36:
35 Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were
a Niche and within it a lamp: the Lamp enclosed in glass: the glass as it were
a brilliant star: lit from a blessed Tree, an olive neither of the East nor of
the West whose oil is well-nigh luminous though fire scarce touched it: Light
upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light. Allah doth set forth
Parables for men: and Allah doth know all things.
36 (Lit is such a light) in houses (mosques) which Allah hath permitted
to be raised to honor; for the celebration in them of His Name: in them
is He Glorified in the mornings and in the evenings (again and again).
The literal meaning of the
Arabic term ‘masjid’ means ‘a place where prostration or sajdah is done’; thus
the very essence of the name ‘masjid’ implies that the main and very purpose of
a ‘masjid’ in Islam is solely for the Remembrance and Worship of Allah Subhanah
Alone.
No particular person has been
vested with the monopoly or authority to alone declare a place a ‘masjid’! Any place which the believers decide to
dedicate to the sole Remembrance and Worship of their Lord Most High can be
dedicated as a ‘masjid’ by the believers.
Narrated Abu Dharr
al-Ghaffari (r.a.) that the Messenger of Allah (saws) said: "Wherever you
may be at the time of salah, you may pray, for it [the whole earth] is declared
as a ‘masjid’ by Allah Subhanah."
Related by Bukhari
and Muslim
Your Question: …Who decided on the number of sawabs a
person will receive when praying in different masjids?
Allah Subhanah, the Supreme Lord
of the Worlds Alone has the sole right to Decide and Declare what rewards He
has Determined for which act of worship….and this message is communicated to
His appointed Messengers who in turn communicate it to the believers.
Sahih Al-Bukhari
Hadith 1.621 Narrated by Abu
Salama bin Abdur Rahman
Abu Huraira said,
"I heard Allah's Messenger (saws) saying, 'The reward of a prayer in
congregation is twenty five (and in another narration twenty-seven) times
greater than that of a prayer offered by a person alone.'”
Al-Tirmidhi Hadith
752 Narrated by Anas ibn Malik
Allah's Messenger
(saws) said: ‘The prayer of a person in his house is a single prayer; his
prayer in the mosque of his tribe has the reward of twenty-five (or
twenty-seven) prayers; his prayer in the mosque of Aqsa has a reward of five
hundred prayers; his prayer in my mosque (the Prophet's (saws) mosque in
Medinah) has a reward of one thousand prayers; and the prayer in the Sacred
Mosque at Makkah has a reward of one hundred thousand prayers.’
In light of the above quoted
Guidance of the Messenger of Allah (saws) the rewards of prayers determined by
Allah Subhanah are as follows:
Whatever written of
Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever
of error is of me alone. Allah Alone
Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your brother and
well wisher in Islam,
Burhan