The Medina Model: An Islamic Blueprint for Muslim Communities | Dr. Sohail Hanif

 

What does it mean to build a Medina, and why are collective institutions so central to a strong and vibrant communal life? In this episode, we delve into the idea of a Medina and how establishing collective institutions can strengthen and sustain a thriving community. The discussion also reflects on the profound significance of the Qur’anic message, emphasising Islam’s deep concern for the world around us and its call for believers to live lives of purpose, impact, and meaningful contribution. Joining me for this conversation is Dr Sohail Hanif, CEO of the National Zakat Foundation and lecturer at Cambridge Muslim College, whose work focuses on Islamic law, theology, and communal development.

Ramadan in Madinah | Iftar in Masjid an Nabawi | Day 1 | Mustafa Hanif

 

InshaAllah may we all experience Ramadan in Medina.

I Visited MEDINA, SAUDI ARABIA, as a Non Muslim 🇸🇦 المدينة

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Madinah during the pandemic (amazing)

I got into Masjid Nabawi in Madina!

Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah's Rape of Makkah & Madina

The Battle of al-Harrah took place after the massacre of the family of the Prophet (s.a.w.) at Karbala.  The army of Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah attacked Madina whose residents had revolted against his tyranny and outrage over the murder of the Ahl al-Bayt.  In Madina, they massacred 10,000 of the best Muslims then, including 700swahabah who fought valiantly until the end.  Among the dead were the swahabah who had participated in the Battle of Badr.  More than a 1,000 of their daughters were raped and impregnated.  For three entire days, there was no adzan and swalah in Masjid an-Nabawi.  The pillars of the mosques were used by Yazid’s Army to tether their horses and the animals defecated therein, soiling the place.

The pillage was done at Yazid’s explicit order as recorded in the history books.  The people of Madina, theswahabah and the tabi’un, were forced to give bay'ah to Yazid as slaves to him.  When a man from the Answarsaid, “I give bay’ah to him on the Qur’an and the sunnah”, they chopped off his head.

Imam al-Bukhari (r.a.) narrated in his Swahih, that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “My Madina is a Sacred Sanctuary, so whosoever commits crime therein, then upon him is the Curse of Allah, His angels and all people.”  On the strength of this hadits, we curse Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah, those who follow him and we rebuke those who think he is in the right to this day.  And the only group that disregards this hadits and honour Yazid is the Wahhabi sect.  Only a kafir would support a kafir.

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The Women Who Guard the Prophet's Mosque

 

To be in the city of the Prophet is a blessing in itself, but to be there during Ramadan, that is a whole other story. Women surround me as I make my way towards the gates of Masjid-E-Nabawi (The Mosque of the Prophet Muhammed P.B.U.H), stopping a few feet from the doors to remove their shoes. They then line up, holding their bags out for inspection.

At the entrance of each gate are two women covered in black from head to toe. They stand tall, even wearing black gloves. Nothing can be seen of them except their eyes. One by one, they look through the contents of each bag. I see one taking out a bar of chocolate, stating that food isn't allowed in the mosque, while another confiscates a juice box. They toss items aside, relentless, and usher worshippers -- including myself -- into the mosque.

They are called Mursheeda, "those who guide." They aren't just security guards; they are scholars of Islam, women with a purpose. While some worshippers may not even pay attention to them, others have had their fair share of unpleasant encounters with the Mursheeda. These women are stern, and they have to be. Thousands pour in and out of the mosque around the clock, and they are essential to establishing crowd control.

The Mursheeda aren't all necessarily employees of the mosque; some are volunteers. They stand tall, scattered throughout the mosque on the lookout for any suspicious or illicit activity. I see a woman using her cell phone to take a picture of the beautiful interior. Almost immediately, I see a Mursheeda moving towards her. She takes the phone, deletes the picture, hands it back to her and walks off without explanation.

Even inside the mosque, I note that the faces of the Mursheeda are covered. It is because women may take pictures of them and show them to their husbands, brothers, or even worse, upload them on social media. This is why cell phones with cameras are not permitted in the holy mosque. The Mursheeda are extremely devout Muslims, and apart from other women, only show their faces to immediate male family members.

They are striking, even though they can hardly be seen. It's in the way they stand, with a greater purpose. They are the guardians of the Mosque of Muhammed P.B.U.H, the greatest man to have ever lived, according to Islam. I note how one has a perfect winged liner, and catch a glimpse of a sparkly watch on the wrist of another. It reminds me that beneath their stern demeanor, their rigid backs and strict voices, they are also simply women.

I see two other Mursheeda guiding women towards seating areas. "Yallah baji," one says loudly, motioning as traffic police would, towards two elderly Pakistani women who seem overwhelmed by the crowd. 'Yallah' roughly translates to 'come on' in Arabic, while 'baji' is an Urdu word used to address older women. It intrigues me, their use of multiple languages. "Asseyez-vous," I hear another instruct, telling a group of women to sit down in French. I later learn that the mosque employs women of a number of different nationalities including, but not limited to, Pakistani, Turkish, Egyptian, Algerian and Moroccan. The mosque attracts people from the world over, so it is essential to hire employees who speak different languages.

Each member of this carefully-selected force of women must fulfill two requirements. She must live in Medinah, and she must be able to speak Arabic fluently. If you look closely, you will note that the Mursheeda can be distinguished by one of two things, either a pink card stuck to the front of their burqas, or a green and white seal on their sleeves. A Mursheeda with a pink card is in training, and is currently serving as a member of the guard. A Mursheeda with a seal on her sleeve has completed her training and is at a higher rank. She is an Islamic scholar, and can be approached with regard to any religious questions you may have.

Masjid-E-Nabawi is anything but simply a mosque. It includes a number of offices, a lost and found, a library, a clinic and a school specializing in the teaching of the holy Quran. Most importantly, it is the resting place of the Prophet Muhammed P.B.U.H, who I have come to visit and pay my respects to. These women have led me to him, and for this they shall be greatly rewarded.

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Medina: Saudis take a bulldozer to Islam's history

Three of the world’s oldest mosques are about to be destroyed as Saudi Arabia embarks on a multi-billion-pound expansion of Islam’s second holiest site. Work on the Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, where the Prophet Mohamed is buried, will start once the annual Hajj pilgrimage ends next month. When complete, the development will turn the mosque into the world’s largest building, with the capacity for 1.6 million worshippers.

But concerns have been raised that the development will see key historic sites bulldozed. Anger is already growing at the kingdom’s apparent disdain for preserving the historical and archaeological heritage of the country’s holiest city, Mecca.  Most of the expansion of Masjid an-Nabawi will take place to the west of the existing mosque, which holds the tombs of Islam’s founder and two of his closest companions, Abu Bakr and Umar.

Just outside the western walls of the current compound are mosques dedicated to Abu Bakr and Umar, as well as the Masjid Ghamama, built to mark the spot where the Prophet is thought to have given his first prayers for the Eid festival. The Saudis have announced no plans to preserve or move the three mosques, which have existed since the seventh century and are covered by Ottoman-era structures, or to commission archaeological digs before they are pulled down, something that has caused considerable concern among the few academics who are willing to speak out in the deeply authoritarian kingdom.

“No one denies that Medina is in need of expansion, but it’s the way the authorities are going about it which is so worrying,” says Dr Irfan al-Alawi of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation. “There are ways they could expand which would either avoid or preserve the ancient Islamic sites but instead they want to knock it all down.” Dr Alawi has spent much of the past 10 years trying to highlight the destruction of early Islamic sites.

With cheap air travel and booming middle classes in populous Muslim countries within the developing world, both Mecca and Medina are struggling to cope with the 12 million pilgrims who visit each year – a number expected to grow to 17 million by 2025. The Saudi monarchy views itself as the sole authority to decide what should happen to the cradle of Islam. Although it has earmarked billions for an enormous expansion of both Mecca and Medina, it also sees the holy cities as lucrative for a country almost entirely reliant on its finite oil wealth.

Heritage campaigners and many locals have looked on aghast as the historic sections of Mecca and Medina have been bulldozed to make way for gleaming shopping malls, luxury hotels and enormous skyscrapers. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of the 1,000-year-old buildings in the two cities have been destroyed in the past 20 years.

In Mecca, the Masjid al-Haram, the holiest site in Islam and a place where all Muslims are supposed to be equal, is now overshadowed by the Jabal Omar complex, a development of skyscraper apartments, hotels and an enormous clock tower. To build it, the Saudi authorities destroyed the Ottoman era Ajyad Fortress and the hill it stood on. Other historic sites lost include the Prophet’s birthplace – now a library – and the house of his first wife, Khadijah, which was replaced with a public toilet block.

Neither the Saudi Embassy in London nor the Ministry for Foreign Affairs responded to requests for comment when The Independent contacted them this week. But the government has previously defended its expansion plans for the two holy cities as necessary. It insists it has also built large numbers of budget hotels for poorer pilgrims, though critics point out these are routinely placed many miles away from the holy sites.

Until recently, redevelopment in Medina has pressed ahead at a slightly less frenetic pace than in Mecca, although a number of early Islamic sites have still been lost. Of the seven ancient mosques built to commemorate the Battle of the Trench – a key moment in the development of Islam – only two remain. Ten years ago, a mosque which belonged to the Prophet’s grandson was dynamited. Pictures of the demolition that were secretly taken and smuggled out of the kingdom showed the religious police celebrating as the building collapsed.

The disregard for Islam’s early history is partly explained by the regime’s adoption of Wahabism, an austere and uncompromising interpretation of Islam that is vehemently opposed to anything which might encourage Muslims towards idol worship.

In most of the Muslim world, shrines have been built. Visits to graves are also commonplace. But Wahabism views such practices with disdain. The religious police go to enormous lengths to discourage people from praying at or visiting places closely connected to the time of the Prophet while powerful clerics work behind the scenes to promote the destruction of historic sites.

Dr Alawi fears that the redevelopment of the Masjid an-Nabawi is part of a wider drive to shift focus away from the place where Mohamed is buried. The spot that marks the Prophet’s tomb is covered by a famous green dome and forms the centrepiece of the current mosque. But under the new plans, it will become the east wing of a building eight times its current size with a new pulpit. There are also plans to demolish the prayer niche at the centre of mosque. The area forms part of the Riyadh al-Jannah (Garden of Paradise), a section of the mosque that the Prophet decreed especially holy..

“Their excuse is they want to make more room and create 20 spaces in a mosque that will eventually hold 1.6 million,” says Dr Alawi. “It makes no sense. What they really want is to move the focus away from where the Prophet is buried.”

A pamphlet published in 2007 by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs – and endorsed by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz al Sheikh – called for the dome to be demolished and the graves of Mohamed, Abu Bakr and Umar to be flattened. Sheikh Ibn al-Uthaymeen, one of the 20th century’s most prolific Wahabi scholars, made similar demands.

“Muslim silence over the destruction of Mecca and Medina is both disastrous and hypocritical,” says Dr Alawi. “The recent movie about the Prophet Mohamed caused worldwide protests... and yet the destruction of the Prophet’s birthplace, where he prayed and founded Islam has been allowed to continue without any criticism.”

Mecca and Medina in numbers

12m The number of people who visit Mecca and Medina every year

3.4m The number of Muslims expected to perform Hajj (pilgrimage) this year

60,000 The current capacity of the Masjid an-Nabawi mosque

1.6m The projected capacity of the mosque after expansion

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