When the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w reached Quba on his historic journey to Medina, he stopped for some days in Quba. During the few days he was in Quba the Prophet s.a.w built a Mosque and when he reached Medina, among the things that he did, he first built a Mosque which was later named as the Prophet’s Mosque. Prophet s.a.w bought the lands from two orphans and together with the Sahabah, the Prophet s.a.w built the Mosque. The Mosque was a simple Mosque with the pillars of the Mosque was made from the trunks of the date trees and the roofs were made from date leaves. Although the Mosque was simple but it was full of activities, twenty four hours daily. We have to make the activities in our Mosques as similar to the activities of the Prophet’s Mosque at the time of the Prophet s.a.w. The activities that were carried out in the Prophet’s Mosque have to be followed by Muslims until doomsday. The actions of the Prophet s.a.w have clearly indicated to us that the activities that are carried out in the Mosque are more important than the building of the Mosque. The building is like the body but the activities of the Mosque are like the soul and the mind of the body. Without the correct activities carried out in the Mosque, the Mosque will be just like a body without soul and mind. In other words the Mosque is like a dead body. What is important is the soul of the Mosque, which is the activities that are carried out in the Mosque, such as the activities carried out at the time of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.

Are our Mosques similar to the Mosque of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w in term of its activities or otherwise? Nowadays Muslims build very beautiful Mosques and some Mosques are built like a palace and its maintenance can reach up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in a month. Muslims as well as non-Muslims visit the Mosques to look at its splendour and grandeur. The Mosques have become a centre of attractions for tourists. Even the Muslims who visit the Mosque may not even remember to perform prayer in respect of the Mosque, because they are so attracted to the beauty of the Mosques. Nowadays Mosques are lacking the soul and mind and the Mosque are like the dead body. When anyone visits a person who is alive, he or she may gain benefit from his visit to that person, but in case the person is dead, the visit is only to pay respect to the dead person. Similarly the visits of Muslims nowadays to the Mosque are like visiting a dead person. At the time of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w the Mosque was full with activities. The Mosque was like a man with body, mind and soul. The Mosque was full of activities even during the early hours of the day. The sahabah took turn to come to the Mosque and participated in the activities of the Mosque. Each one of the sahabah regarded themselves as the worker of the Mosque and each one was willing to spare some times in the day and in the night in making the Mosque full of activities twenty four hours daily.

When the Mosques are full of activities, the Mosques are like a person having mind, body and soul. Anyone who comes to the mosques with a dead soul and mind will find their soul and mind to be rejuvenated. When a person with a dead soul and mind comes to the Mosques and participates with the activities of the Mosques, his soul and mind will become alive. His soul and mind will start to become fresh and shining. Now we have many Mosques but all of our Mosques are like a dead person. Anyone who goes to the Mosque with soul and mind being not rejuvenated, he or she will also come out of the Mosque having the same soul and mind as he or she has before entering the Mosque. We have not making use of the Mosques to harness human potentials. We have not making use of the Mosques to correct our beliefs and minds. We have not making use of the Mosques to produce the best Muslims. We only built beautiful Mosques that cost us millions of dollars and we didn’t utilize the Mosques to its utmost potential as a means to produce the best Muslims. The Prophet’s Mosque at the time of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. was a very simple Mosque and cost them little money to be built but the Mosque was full of activities twenty four hours daily and they produced out of that Mosque such personalities like Hazrat Abu Bakar, Hazrat Umar and many others that the world has never produced before and probably will never produce in the future.

We are Muslims and we have the Prophet s.a.w. as our example. When we want to build a community that is obedience to commandments of Allah, we have to start with the Mosques. We have to make our Mosques full with activities as similar to the Prophet’s Mosque at the time of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. The Mosque of the Prophet s.a.w was full with activities twenty four hours daily, because the amal of dakwah was alive while our Mosques are not full with activities because the amal of dakwah like the way the Prophet s.a.w are not alive in our Mosques. We think by just having lectures in the Mosques we are already doing the work of dakwah. We organized daily lectures in the Mosques between Maghrib and Isyak and we expect the Muslims in the locality will come to hear the lectures. Only some of those who come to the Mosque for Maghrib prayer will listen to the lecture. We really do not know how to promote our religion. By only organizing daily lectures in the Mosques is not good enough to promote it. We do not do any marketing on Islam and we expect the non-Muslims to come to Islam. No matter how good the product is, without marketing the sales of the product will be down. Dakwah is the way on how to market Islam to the non-Muslims. We have to visit Muslims in our locality, and remind them about Allah and the orders of Allah and ask them to do the work of dakwah and to perform prayer with congregation in the Mosques. We have to visit the non-Muslims in our locality and invite them to embrace Islam. We have to ask all the Muslims in our locality to do marketing on Islam in the locality. When the number of Muslims doing the work of dakwah increases the number of Muslims that comes to the Mosques for prayer also increases. We can organize the Muslims in the locality to spend time in the Mosque turn by turn and in this way the Mosque will be full of activities twenty four hours daily.

When our Mosques are full with amal or activities twenty four hours daily, then our Mosques will become similar to the Mosques of the Prophet s.a.w at the time of the Prophet s.a.w. Our Mosques will have the radiance of light that will penetrate the heart of those who come to our Mosques. Muslims or non-Muslims who enter our Mosques will be affected by the radiance of light that comes from the various amal in the Mosques and Muslims will come out of the Mosques with increased iman and understanding of Islam and the non-Muslims will come out of the Mosques as Muslims. In this way we are making use of our Mosques correctly and we will have good and quality citizen.
Prof Dr Nasoha Saabin
March 2010
Integrative Holistic Wellness Centre