Cultural aspects in Christian and Islamic religions - unesdoc - Unesco

Mosques
The root of the word mosque (masjid) is in fact a
place to prostrate (sujud). This is what is said in
Sura: The Journey by Night (17), Verse 1: ‘Glory be
to Him Who carried His servant by night from the
Sacred Mosque to the Furthest Mosque, whose
precincts We have blessed, to show him of Our
wonders!’ Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Mecca, i.e. the
Kaaba, was a known construction but it had no
equal when the Sura was revealed. The Prophet
(PBUH) started, upon arriving to Medina in the
summer of A.D. 622, to plan the construction of
another mosque that stretched on about 800
square meters in area. The lower part of its walls
was made of stone whereas the upper part
was made of palm branches. He would preach
leaning against the trunk of a tree; then a twostep
stand was built for him. For sixteen months,
Muslims turned to Jerusalem when praying, until
the year A.D. 624, when the Kaaba became the
Qibla (direction to which Muslims turn in prayer)
as mentioned in the Verse: ‘We have seen you
turning your face from side to side in the heavens,
So We will now turn you towards a direction that
will please you: Turn your face towards the Sacred
Mosque.’ (Sura: The Cow(2), Verse 144).
Mosques are decorated with various ornaments
in order to make them look neat and elegant, but
without overdoing it. Decoration is recommended
to show veneration to the mosque. Decoration is
the completion of beauty, but it should not include
gold, which is forbidden for various reasons. The
use of gold is considered a squandering of money
that should be spent on the poor and the needy
or on building another mosque. Gold decoration
also breaks the heart of the poor when they see it
and the Prophet (PBUH) prohibited it.
163