According to Mehrab News, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, the Secretary General of the Global Assembly of Religious Approximation pointed to the first mosque which was constructed by the grand prophet of Islam during his lecture and said: this is Qoba’a Mosque which is established by the grand prophet of Islam. Some anecdotes are narrated about the spiritual rewards of praying in this mosque especially from the Imams of Shiite. For instance, according to Ibn Sa’ad, in the first volume of Tabaqaat, the Grand Prophet of Islam went and held Salaat every Saturday in this mosque while he had said that the spiritual reward of praying in this mosque is same to Hajj.
He stated that we have also same to this anecdote in our resources. Decent Ibn Qolooyeh narrates from Imam Sadiq, in Kamel Al-Ziaraat same to this Hadis. The Grand Prophet of Islam had used ‘’my mosque’’ phrase about this mosque.
Ayatollah Araki said: this is the importance and high dignity of mosques that according to these narrations of Sunni Muslims which are narrated by Ibn Saad also, the prophet’s disciples also called this mosque as Rasulullah Mosque (means the Prophet’s mosque). According to Ibn Saad, the Grand Prphet of Islam went to the mosque on Saturdays. But in another narration from Abou Saeid Khedri, he had gone to the mosque in Monday (one time or more).
According to Ayatollah Araki, asserted: at least, we can find three points about construction of this mosque. First, the Grand Prophet waited for joining Imam Ali to him to establish the mosque. Even people of Bani Amr Bin Ouf Zone recommended to build a mosque for him but the Grand Prophet rejected their recommendations. Second, the plan of the mosque was designed by Imam Ali and after finishing the primary steps of the building construction, the first Friday Prayer or Jom’ah Salaat was held by the Grand Prophet of Islam.
The Secretary General of the Global Assembly of Religious Approximation asserted: the Grand Prophet of Islam was awaiting more than two weeks for Imam Ali and didn’t start the Friday Prayer with two discourses. This issue shows some reasons to us. Firstly, mosque is the main base for the Islamic civilization. It means the Grand Prophet began a new round of his prophetic mission and Medina was the era of Islamic government. So the establishment of Islamic Government in fact began from the Qoba Mosque and mosque was the main base and pivot of Islamic civilization.
He continued, in Islamic town planning also the mosque which is the place for holding Friday Prayer has to be located in city centre. Even mosques have to be located in centre of any district. According to narrations, there are forty houses in neighbourhood of mosque in any side. We always emphasised on this issue that Fiqh is divided to personal and social types. If somebody has a small piece of land can build a mosque but sometimes we decide to construct a town or city. So obviously this is the task of government to build required mosques for this city. But this issue that how do we design an Islamic mosque? How society does manage the process of mosque building in an Islamic city?
He said, the Jam’e (comprehensive) mosque of any city has to be located in city centre as pivot of the mentioned city and the social-civil centres have to be located around this mosque. Also an Islamic city is a designed horizontally. Because, anybody who lives in this city has to be able to observe sunrise and sunset from his home. The crescent of the moon has to be recognizable simply. For example when we were in London for a mission, the Shiite Muslims were enforced to announce four days as the celebration of the end of Ramadan (Fitr). This is not the will of Islam and suitable pattern for construction of an Islamic city.
This Seminary teacher asserted: the month crescent has to be recognizable simply and naturally by people and they should be able to observe sunrise and sunset. The people and divine verses connection have not to be disconnected. Materialism and seaside such as AIDS, cancer and etc which are known as the chronic diseases is the product of western culture which is enforced to us. According to Quran, corruption is cause to public disorder.
Ayatollah Araki asserted: wrong urban civil is one of the factor in confusion which has made the human natural life out of rule. We can refer to use of animals for transportation which has conformity with human virtue. This is not turning back to past and dogmatism but it is accordance with the verses and recommendations of Quran. We are not enforced to use cars and fuel to transport. These vehicles create air pollution. The civil life and achievements of the modern life are source of these problems. Just diseases and physical problems are realizable while the most dangerous diseases are not appreciable like homosexual which has become as natural rule. This is the symptom of spiritual disease which has infected some societies.
He continued: so, this is the first given lesson by the grand prophet that mosque is the pivot of an Islamic society and is in direct relation with Imamat issue. Mosque means the house of Imam .we have to remind that all of the life aspects of Imam and prophet are not personal but some of them depend on their character and personality. « مَّا کَانَ مُحَمَّدٌ أَبَا أَحَدٍ مِّن رِّجَالِکُمْ وَلَکِن رَّسُولَ اللَّهِ»
It means the Grand Prophet of Islam is not a usual man but the messenger of God. So, all of his works are done with the God’s consent. Imams of Shiite also are similar to the Grand Prophet in God’s rules. So the face of purity of mosque is because of its being as the Imam’s house and it has to be immaculate because the Imam’s house has to be pure and clean. So Imamat is the basic principle of mosque. Imam of beach mosque is in fact the delegate of the twelfth Imam of Shiite and following the imams of mosques is following the twelfth imam of Shiite. So imam of mosque has to believe in Imamat in Shiite fiqh.
He asserted: if the Grand Prophet of Islam held the Friday prayer after establishment of the first mosque, it shows the importance of Friday prayer holding in the Islamic civilization. The Islamic Civilization is made by the Friday prayer. But what are the functions of the Friday prayer? The Friday prayer creates a public culture in order to educate faithful Muslims. The western civilizations and societies transmit their desired sub cultures using media in order to educate their people in accordance with their will. They nominate this process as cultural engineering. The Islamic cultural engineering is necessary to do. One of the characters of an ideal Islamic society is attending the Friday Prayer by people. If people attend the Friday prayer even once a week, it causes to be educated according to the Islamic values and prevents crimes in society. It is simple to test this assumption. You can search among criminals and then ask how many of them attend mosques and Friday prayer.
He concluded at end of his words that obviously mosques and Friday Prayers make an ideological culture and education will be done by these factors. That’s why the Grand Prophet of Islam started from mosque construction and holding Friday Prayer to educate people.