Sayyiduna Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that I asked: O Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)! Which mosque was built first on the face of the earth? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Al-Masjid al-Haram. He narrated that then I asked: And after that? He said: Al-Masjid al-Aqsa (Bayt al-Maqdis). I asked: What was the time interval between the construction of the two? He said: Forty years. Then he said: Now, wherever the time for prayer comes upon you, perform the prayer there; offering prayer is of great virtue.

Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: I have been given five things which were not given to any prophet before me. The first is that I have been helped by instilling fear (in the enemy) from a distance of one month’s journey. The second is that the entire earth has been made a place of prayer and a means of purification for me, so wherever any man of my ummah finds the time for prayer, he should pray there. The third is that war booty has been made lawful for me. The fourth is that the previous prophets were sent only to their own people, but I have been sent to all mankind. The fifth is that I have been granted intercession.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Noble Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: I have been sent with comprehensive speech (whose wording is concise, eloquent, and expressive, but whose meanings are vast), and I have been supported with awe (cast into the hearts of my enemies). While I was asleep, the keys of the treasures of the earth were brought to me and placed in my hand. Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has now gone (to his Lord), and (the treasures whose keys were given) you are now extracting them.

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that when the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) arrived in Madinah, he stayed in the upper part of the city with Banu Amr bin Awf and remained there for twenty-four nights. Then he sent for the people of Banu Najjar, so they came with their swords hanging by their sides. Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: It is as if I am seeing before my eyes the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) mounted on his ride, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) sitting behind him, and the people of Banu Najjar surrounding the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) from all sides, until he dismounted in front of the house of Abu Ayyub (may Allah be pleased with him). The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) liked that whenever the time for prayer came, he would immediately perform the prayer. He (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would even pray in sheep enclosures. Then the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) instructed for a mosque to be built there. Accordingly, he called the people of Banu Najjar and said: O Banu Najjar, sell me the price of this garden of yours. They replied: O Messenger of Allah! No, we seek its price only from Allah, the Exalted. Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated: As I have told you, there were graves of polytheists here, a deserted place in this garden, and some date-palm trees. The Noble Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) had the graves of the polytheists removed, the deserted area cleaned and leveled, and the trees cut down, and their wood was laid towards the qiblah side of the mosque and made firm with stones. The Companions would recite rajaz (poetry) while lifting stones, and the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was with them, saying: O Allah, there is no benefit except the benefit of the Hereafter. So forgive the Ansar and the Muhajirin.

Sayyiduna Bara’ bin Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed facing Bayt al-Maqdis for sixteen or seventeen years, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wished in his heart to pray facing the Ka‘bah. Finally, Allah the Exalted revealed this verse:“We have certainly seen the turning of your face toward the heaven”(al-Baqarah 144). Then he turned his face toward the Ka‘bah, and the foolish ones among the Jews began to say,“What has turned them away from their former qiblah?”Say:“To Allah belongs the east and the west; He guides whom He wills.”(When the qiblah was changed,) a man had prayed with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and after the prayer he passed by a group of the Ansar who were praying the ‘Asr prayer facing Bayt al-Maqdis. He said,“I bear witness that I have prayed with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and he prayed facing the present qiblah (the Ka‘bah).”Then that group (while still in prayer) turned around and faced the Ka‘bah.

Sayyiduna Bara’ bin ‘Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that we prayed facing Bayt al-Maqdis with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) for sixteen or seventeen months, then Allah Almighty commanded us to face the Ka‘bah.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said that the people were offering the Fajr prayer in Quba when a person came and informed them that revelation had come to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) yesterday, and he has been commanded to face the Ka'bah (in prayer). So those people also turned their faces towards the Ka'bah. At that time, they were facing towards Syria, so they all turned towards the Ka'bah.

Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates that Umm Habibah and Umm Salamah both mentioned a church which they had seen in Abyssinia, and there were pictures in it. They mentioned this to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), so he said: Their custom was that when a righteous man among them died, they would build a place of worship over his grave and make such images in it. These people will be the worst of creation in the sight of Allah on the Day of Resurrection.

Narrated by Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said during his final illness: "May Allah curse the Jews and Christians, for they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship." Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "If it were not for this fear, his grave would have been open (and not inside the chamber), because I fear that his grave might also be made into a mosque."

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "May Allah curse the Jews, for they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship."