Prophet’s Mosque Friday Sermon: Sheikh Dr. Khalid Al-Muhanna on the Virtue of Mosques
The sermon and prayer for the Friday prayer today in the Prophet’s Mosque was delivered by His Eminence Sheikh Dr. Khalid Al-Muhanna.
The Imam of Masjid Nabwi advised Muslims to fear God Almighty and obey the Generous Lord in order to win forgiveness and a great reward. God Almighty said: “O you who have believed, fear God and speak words of appropriate justice. He will then amend your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys God and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment.”
The Imam said: Mosques are the houses of God on His earth, the most beloved places to Him, inspiring deep reverence and love in the hearts of believers. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The most beloved places to God are His mosques, and the most detested by Him are His markets.”
God commanded their construction and preservation so that they would be places of His remembrance, glorification, and magnification. He, the Majestic, said: “In houses which God has permitted to be raised and in which His name is mentioned; glorifying Him therein in the mornings and the evenings are men whom neither trade nor sale distract from the remembrance of God and performance of prayer and giving of zakah.
They fear a Day in which hearts and eyes will be overturned.” That God may reward them according to the best of what they did and increase them from His bounty. And God provides for whom He wills without account. It is inhabited by men who frequent it five times a day and night to perform God’s obligations upon them. God has testified to the faith of its visitors, so none frequents it except a believer who remembers the Hereafter and hopes for the mercy of his Lord.
Sheikh Dr. Khalid Al-Muhanna explained that the Muslim longs for it, and his heart rejoices for it whenever he recalls the noble promise that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, gave to its regular worshippers, saying: “Whoever goes to the mosque in the morning or evening, God will prepare for him a place of rest in Paradise every time he goes in the morning or evening.”
The Muslim frequents it by remembering his Lord, reciting His Book, performing his obligatory duties, increasing his voluntary acts of worship in it, and learning the virtuous religious sciences. Therefore, it was built elevated above idle talk and gossip, protected from idle talk, amusement, and questioning, fostering a sense of spiritual aspiration and hope for divine reward.
Sheikh Dr. Khalid Al-Muhanna said: The one who goes to the mosques is between a degree that raises him, a sin that is removed from him, and angels praying for him and asking forgiveness for him. And the one who stays in it waiting for the prayer has the same reward as the one who fasts and prays. As the truthful and trustworthy one, may God bless him and grant him peace, indicated these great virtues: “A man’s prayer in congregation is twenty-five times more rewarding than his prayer in his house and in his market.
That is because when he performs ablution and does it well, then goes out to the mosque, nothing but prayer drives him out; he does not take a step except that a degree is raised for him and a sin is removed from him. And when he prays, the angels continue to pray for him as long as he is in his place of prayer: O God, bless him, O God, have mercy on him. And one of you remains in prayer as long as he waits for the prayer.”
The Imam of Prophet’s Mosque explained that because of the status of mosques in Islam, God’s love for them, and His glorification of them, the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, personally oversaw the construction of his noble mosque, and his companions helped him with it. He also built the Quba Mosque before that, and encouraged the building of mosques because of the good reward and great recompense that God promised for doing so.
Mosques are a resting place for the righteous and a meeting place for the believers, fostering a sense of brotherhood and unity. In mosques, a great objective of Islam is achieved: the realization of the brotherhood of faith.
The Muslim meets his brother in the mosque with joy, greets him with peace, so that compassion, mercy, and harmony prevail. They check on each other’s conditions, cooperate in righteousness and piety, and advise one another to truth and patience, strengthening feelings of belonging and mutual support.
Sheikh Khalid Al-Muhanna concluded by saying that mosques are the houses of God, and they were built only to establish His remembrance. Good manners in them are obligatory, because they are good manners with God. Whoever stands in them should only say good things and do good deeds.
Only the work of the Hereafter is intended in them, and all worldly matters, such as buying and selling, should be avoided in them, as the prohibition of this was established from the Master of Messengers.
Talking about ways of earning and making a living should be avoided in them, let alone delving into people’s reputations and backbiting about them, raising voices, laughing, making noise, arguing, asking too much about conditions, and other such talk of the general public.
