Imam of the Prophet’s Mosque: Mosques are the houses of God and the resting places of the righteous
His Eminence Sheikh Dr. Khaled Al-Muhanna, the Imam and Preacher of the Prophet’s Mosque, advised Muslims to fear God Almighty and obey the Noble Lord in order to gain forgiveness and a great reward. God Almighty said: (O you who have believed, fear God and speak a wise word, which will make your deeds right for you. And He will forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys God and His Messenger has achieved a great victory.)
His Eminence said: Mosques are the houses of God on His earth, and the most beloved of places to Him, Glory be to Him. He, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, said: “The most beloved of places to God are their mosques, and the most hated to Him are their markets.” God commanded them to be built and preserved so that they would be places of His remembrance, praise, and glorification. He, may He be glorified, said: “In houses that God has permitted to be raised up and to be remembered in them.” His name is glorified therein in the mornings and the evenings, men who are not distracted by trade or selling from the remembrance of God, the establishment of prayer, and the giving of zakat. They fear a day when hearts and eyes will be turned so that God will reward them for the best of what they have done and increase them of His bounty. And God provides for those who He wills without reckoning. It is undertaken by men who pledge themselves to it five times during their day and night in order to perform the obligations of God upon them. God bears witness to its pioneers of faith, so no one undertakes it except a believer who remembers the Hereafter and hopes for the mercy of his Lord.
His Eminence explained that the Muslim longs for it, and his heart rejoices for it whenever he remembers the noble promise that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, announced to its residents, saying: “Whoever goes to the mosque tomorrow or goes, God has prepared for him a dwelling place in Paradise every morning or go.” The Muslim lives in it by remembering his Lord, reciting his book, and performing his obligatory prayers, and he increases in it many voluntary acts of worship, and learns the virtuous legal sciences, and that is why it was built. It is removed from gossip, protected from idle talk, amusement, and questioning.
His Eminence said: The one who seeks the mosques is between a degree that raises him, and a sin that is removed from him, and angels pray for him and ask forgiveness for him, and whoever stays there waiting for prayer, has the reward of a fasting person who prays, as indicated by the saying of Al-Sadiq Al-Maduq, may God bless him and grant him peace: “A man’s prayer in congregation is twenty-five times weaker than his prayer in his house and in his market, and that is if he performs ablution and performs it well, then goes out to the mosque, he does not expel him.” Except for prayer, he did not take a step without it raising him in rank and removing a sin from him, so if he prayed the angels would not stop praying over him, as long as he was in his place of prayer: O God, bless him, O God have mercy on him, and none of you will continue to pray as long as he waits for prayer.”
His Eminence explained that due to the status of mosques in Islam and God’s love for them and His veneration for them, the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, undertook with his generous hand the construction of his noble mosque, and his companions helped him in it, and before that he built the Quba Mosque, and he desired to build mosques because of God’s promise of good reward and great reward for that. Mosques are the resting place of the righteous, and the meeting place of the believers, indicating that in mosques a great purpose is achieved. Islam, which is the realization of the brotherhood of faith. The Muslim meets his fellow human being in the mosque and greets him, so that sympathy, compassion and harmony prevail, and they inspect each other’s conditions, and they cooperate in righteousness and piety, and communicate the truth and patience over it. This is one of the greatest purposes of its construction, and the greatest reasons for its construction.
The imam and preacher of the Prophet’s Mosque, His Eminence Sheikh Dr. Khaled Al-Muhanna, concluded by saying that mosques are houses of God, and were not built except to establish His remembrance. Etiquette in them is obligatory, because it is politeness with God. Whoever stands in them says nothing but good, and does nothing but good. The only intention is to do the Hereafter. All worldly matters of buying and selling are avoided in it, as proven by the prohibition of the Master of the Messengers, and avoiding talking about the aspects of gains and livelihood, let alone engaging in. Concerning people’s honor and insulting them, raising voices, laughing, making noise, arguing, asking extensively about conditions, and other common people’s conversations.
