said: “The hour of doom (al-sā‘ah)14 will not come till people vie with one another in (the building of) mosques” (AD. 2:11). The mosque built by the Holy Prophet himself at Madīnah, called the Prophet’s Mosque, was a simple structure in a vast courtyard in which tents could be pitched in time of need. The building was made of bricks baked in the sun, and the roofed portion, resting on columns consisting of the stems of palm-trees was covered with palm leaves and clay. Both Abū Bakr and ‘Umar, the first and second Caliphs, rebuilt it with the same material, though the latter extended it considerably (AD. 2:11). The great mosques of Islām erected in the time of ‘Umar in Baṣrah, Kūfah and Fusṭāt, the new towns built by the Muslims, or in old towns such as Madā’in, Damascus and Jerusalem, were all simple structures like the Prophet’s Mosque at Madīnah built either of reeds or bricks baked in the sun, with vast courtyards, large enough to accommodate congregations of even 40,000 men, the floors being generally strewn with pebbles. These mosques were built by the Government and had the Government House attached to them, the Governors themselves leading the prayers. Quite in accordance with the simplicity of their structure, the mosques were unfurnished except for mats or carpets and a pulpit from which the sermon was delivered on Fridays. ‘Uthmān, the third Caliph, rebuilt the Prophet’s Mosque at Madīnah with hewn stone and mortar (AD. 2:11). The custom of building mosques with domes and having one or more minarets grew up later, but even these are, notwithstanding their grandeur, monuments of simplicity, their chief adornment being the writing on their walls, in mosaic, of verses from the Holy Qur’ān.

Tribal and sectarian mosques

Every Muslim is free to build a mosque, and so people living in different quarters of a town may build mosques for themselves. Abū Bakr had erected a mosque in the courtyard of his house while still at Makkah at a very early period (Bu. 46 :22). Another Companion, ‘Itbān ibn Mālik, once invited the Holy Prophet to say prayers in a particular part of his house which he might use as a mosque, since he was unable to reach the mosque of his people in the rainy season (Bu. 8:46). A mosque was built at Qubā, in the suburbs of Madīnah, for the people of that locality, the tribe of ‘Amr ibn ‘Auf, and the Holy