Repentance, O Pitiful! Repentance before Death, and Pardon
after Death! I beg pardon of Allah! Thanks be to Allah! Praise be to
Allah! Amen, O Lord of the (three) Worlds!”
After which, issuing from Al-Bakia,[FN#30] we advanced
[p.44] northwards, leaving the city gate on the left hand, till we came
to a small Kubbah (dome) close to the road. It is visited as containing
the tomb of the Prophet’s paternal aunts, especially of Safiyah, daughter
of Abd al-Muttalib, sister of Hamzah, and one of the many heroines of
early Al-Islam. Hurrying over our devotions here,—for we were tired
indeed,—we applied to a Sakka for water, and entered a little
coffee-house near the gate of the town: after which we rode home.
I have now described, at a wearying length I fear, the spots visited by
every Zair at Al-Madinah. The guide-books mention altogether between
fifty and fifty-five Mosques and other holy places, most of which are
now unknown even by name to the citizens. The most celebrated of these
are the few following, which I describe from hearsay. About three miles
to the North-west of the town, close to the Wady al-Akik, lies the
Mosque called Al-Kiblatayn—“The Two Directions of Prayer.” Some give this
title to the Masjid al-Takwa at Kuba.[FN#31] Others assert that the
Prophet, after visiting and eating
[p.45] at the house of an old woman named Umm Mabshar, went to pray the
mid-day prayer in the Mosque of the Benu Salmah. He had performed the
prostration with his face towards Jerusalem, when suddenly warned by
revelation he turned Southwards and concluded his orisons in that
direction.[FN#32] I am told it is a mean dome without inner walls,
outer enclosures, or minaret.
The Masjid Benu Zafar (some write the word Tifr) is also called Masjid
al-Baghlah—of the She-mule,—because, according to Al-Matari, on the ridge
of stone to the south of this Mosque are the marks where the Prophet
leaned his arm, and where the she-mule, Duldul, sent by the Mukaukas as
a present with Mariyah the Coptic girl and Yafur the donkey, placed its
hoofs. At the Mosque was shown a slab upon which the Prophet sat
hearing recitations from the Koran; and historians declare that by
following his example many women have been blessed with
offspring.[FN#33] This Mosque is to the East of Al-Bakia.
The Masjid al-Jumah—of Friday,—or Al-Anikah—of the Sand-heaps,—is in the valley
near Kuba, where Mohammed prayed and preached on the first Friday after
his flight from Meccah [FN#34]
The Masjid al-Fazikh—of Date-liquor—is so called because when Abu Ayyub and
others of the Ansar were sitting with cups in their hands, they heard
that intoxicating
[p.46] draughts were for the future forbidden, upon which they poured
the liquor upon the ground. Here the Prophet prayed six days whilst he
was engaged in warring down the Benu Nazir Jews. The Mosque derives its
other name, Al-Shams—of the Sun—because, being erected on rising ground
East of and near Kuba, it receives the first rays of morning light.
To the Eastward of the Masjid al-Fazikh lies the Masjid al-Kurayzah,
erected on a spot where the Prophet descended to attack the Jewish
tribe of that name. Returning from the battle of the Moat, wayworn and
tired with fighting, he here sat down to wash and comb his hair, when
suddenly appeared to him the Archangel Gabriel in the figure of a
horseman dressed in a corslet and covered with dust. “The Angels of Allah,”
said the preternatural visitor, “are still in Arms, O Prophet, and it is
Allah’s Will that Thy foot return to the Stirrup. I go before Thee to
prepare a Victory over the Infidels, the Sons of Kurayzah.” The legend
adds that the dust raised by the angelic host was seen in the streets
of Al-Madinah, but that mortal eye fell not upon horseman’s form. The
Prophet ordered his followers to sound the battle-call, gave his flag
to Ali,—the Arab token of appointing a commander-in-chief,—and for
twenty-five days invested the habitations of the enemy. This hapless
tribe was exterminated, sentence of death being passed upon them by Sa’ad
ibn Ma’az, an Ausi whom they constituted their judge because he belonged
to an allied tribe. Six hundred men were beheaded in the Market-place
of Al-Madinah, their property was plundered, and their wives and
children were reduced to slavery.
“Tantane relligio potuit suadere malorum!”
The Masjid Mashrabat Umm Ibrahim, or Mosque of the garden of Ibrahim’s
mother, is a place where Mariyah the Copt had a garden, and became the
mother of
[p.47] Ibrahim, the Prophet’s second son.[FN#35] It is a small building
in what is called the Awali, or highest part of the Al-Madinah plain,
to the North of the Masjid Benu Kurayzah, and near the Eastern Harrah
or ridge.[FN#36]
Northwards of Al-Bakia is, or was, a small building called the Masjid
al-Ijabah—of Granting,—from the following circumstance. One day the Prophet
stopped to perform his devotions at this place, which then belonged to
the Benu Mu’awiyah of the tribe of Aus. He made a long Dua or
supplication, and then turning to his Companions, exclaimed, “I have
asked of Allah three favours, two hath he vouchsafed to me, but the
third was refused!” Those granted were that the Moslems might never be
destroyed by famine or by deluge. The third was that they might not
perish by internecine strife.
The Masjid al-Fath (of Victory), vulgarly called the “Four Mosques,” is
situated in the Wady Al-Sayh,[FN#37] which comes from the direction of
Kuba, and about half a mile to the East of “Al-Kiblatayn.” The largest is
called the Masjid al-Fath, or Al-Ahzab—of the Troops,—and is alluded to in
the Koran.
