The City Of Beloved Prophet SAW-Madina
Prophet SAW’s Sayings about the City of Madina
“O Abode of the best of the Messengers! For you (Madinah) I have intense love, passionate love and yearning which kindles the embers of my heart. The Beloved Messenger of Allah SAW prayed, O Allah! Bestow on Madina twice the blessings You bestowed on Makkah.” (Bukhari, vol.3, Book 30, Hadith no.109)
“O, Allah! Ibrahim was your servant, your fried, and your apostle; and I am your servant and your apostle. He (Ibrahim) made supplication to you for (the showering of blessings upon) Makkah, and I am making supplication to you for Madinah just as he made supplication to you for Makkah, and the like of it in addition.” (Muslim, Book 7, Hadith no.31700
Sayyidina Anas b. Malik narrates, “whenever the prophet returned from a journey and observed the walls of Madinah, he would make his mount go fast, and if he was on an animal(i.e. a horse), he would make it gallop because of his love for Madinah.” (Bukhari, Vol.3, Book 30, Hadith no.110)
A Brief History of the City of Prophet SAW
In western Saudi Arabia Medina is a city. In the city center, the vast Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (Prophet’s Mosque) is a major Islamic site. Its Green Dome rises above the tombs of the Prophet Muhammad and early Islamic leaders Abu Bakr and Umar. The Masjid al-Qiblatain(Qiblatain Mosque) is known as the place where the Prophet Muhammad SAW received the order from Allah SWT to change the direction of prayer to Mecca.
The city of Madinah was initially known as Yathrib, a desert city dating as far back as the sixth century BCE. During the war among Jews and Romans in the third century CE, numerous Jews fled Jerusalem and relocated to their tribal spot of Yathrib (present Madinah). Nero sent a monstrous Roman power under Petra Lenidas to Madinah to slaughter the Jews in 213 CE. A community survived and by the time the Prophet (ﷺ) had migrated there was a large Jewish presence around the city.
Prophet SAW visited the city when He was 6 years old with his mother, the prophet SAW was well aware of the city as His beloved father was also buried there. The city of Madina is 210 miles (340km) north of Makkah. At first, it was not as vast as it is today. The records show that the size of Madina was equal to the size of the present masjid at that time. It expanded later.
Few things that you may not be aware of the city of Prophet SAW
- The city of Prophet SAW got 3 famous mosques.
- Quba Mosque
- Al-Masjid an-Nabawi
- Masjid al-Qiblatayn
- In 1908 the city of prophet SAW became the southern terminal of Ottomans’ Hijaz Railway.
- Medina was a city of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in the hands of the Hashemite group – Emirs of Mecca also called Sharifs. Fakhri Pasha was the Ottoman legislative head of Medina and Ali bin Hussein was the pioneer of the Hashemite faction who rebelled against the Caliph in Constantinople. The city was sealed by Hussein’s powers from 1916 to 1919, enduring 2 years and 7 months. It was the time of world war 1.
- It is the most fertile from all of the Hijaz.
- In 1920 there were grown 139 varieties of different dates.
Madina is the second holiest city after Makkah. It is the base city where prophet SAW established the society that was exemplary at that time and still it is a reference for the whole world. Prophet SAW’s body is entombed there and at the time of pilgrimage is visited by the millions of people throughout the globe. The world has seen the influence of the first 4 caliphs who came after the Prophet SAW’s time. They set an example for the world and their rule covered the vast regimes of that time, famously known as Jerusalem, Ctesiphon, and Damascus. These influential figures of history were brought up in the hands of the Prophet SAW in the holy city of Madinah.
In later times it became more attentional for the religious interests than the political ones.
The city of the Prophet SAW always remains a place of attention and it will remain until the last day of judgment. I would add here the famous line before I conclude: “There are some people who reside in Madinah and there are others in whom Madinah resides.”
