16. The Decoration of Al-Masaajid

This is a sign that has occured. In a hadith by Ibn Maajah: RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “A time will come when people will be proud of – or will compete – in building masaajid.

This is narrated by Bukhaari, but it’s not a hadith, it’s an order of ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab. Abu Sa’eed alKhudri says that the roof of the masjid of RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam in Madinah was from the leaves of palm trees. They would pack the leaves one over another, and that would be the roof. The point of their leaves was just for shade – it wasn’t waterproof. So when it rained, the whole masjid would be soaked. That was the situation of the masaajid in the time of RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam and in the time of Abu Bakr. That masjid was where da’wah came out of; so the criteria for masaajid is never how beautiful it is. The masjid of RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was the most blessed in the world, and it didn’t even have a waterproof roof.

In the time of ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab, he bought a builder in and told him, “Build a roof that would be waterproof. And beware – do not use red or yellow, because then you would distract poeple.” [SubhanAllah, look at what we have come to! ‘Umar radiyallahu ‘anhu was saying not to use red and yellow colors - because they were bright! We're far from being cautioned against red and yellow. If you told someone building a masjid that today, they would think you were crazy!]

Anas ibn Maalik said, “A time will come when people will be proud of  the masaajid, but people will not revive them.” So they would be proud of the masjid, but the masjid would be dead. Ibn Abbaas said, “A time will come when you will decorate the masaajid like the Jews and the Christians did.” And now we are way beyond the issue of using red and yellow. Now it’s gold and crystal chandeliers, every kind of calligraphy. When ‘Umar said to not use red or yellow, it wasn’t particularly because of the colours; it was for the issue of distraction. He said: “So you do not distract the people.” These were the two colours that existed, Allahu ‘Alam, at that time, that they used for painting. Now, there’s a company in Turkey that invented a sujaajah that has lights bordering, a built in alarm that beeps when you forget a rak’ah, etc. The Shuyookh said that it is too distracting for you during salah.

Abu Dardaa` says (a companion),”If you decorate your mushaf (Qur’aan) and your masaajid, then destruction will befall you.” That is a sign of destruction. And that is exactly what you see today. The mushaf are very expensive - decorated with gold and special, velvet cloth. The masaajid are built, using huge amounts of money, by people who don’t even pray (kings and presidents). You’ll find all of the people are in the market, right next to the masjid, but no one is going to pray there at the prayer time. Sometimes you’ll find the masjid is so beautiful that it’s used as a museum, but at the time of salah, no one prays. It is just there for people to be impressed by the architecture. SubhanAllah Look at the wisdom of Abu Dardaa` - this is a sign that people are going for the symbolism and not looking at the substance.