This Earth a Masjid?
The Prophet recounts five things uniquely granted him in a fairly well-known tradition found in many collections of Hadith and transmitted variously by Jabir bin 'Abdullah. The second of these is that the earth was made for him a masjid and a means of purification ("made for us a masjid", the variant in Sahih Muslim says, "and its dust purification when we cannot find water")--so, wherever a Muslim happens to be at the time of prayer, there she or he can pray. Salah, that is, does not require a sanctuary constructed specifically for the purpose of worship, as was required of other nations, and water ablutions may be replaced if circumstances so dictate. But it is this first segment of the tradition to which I would like to return, and not merely for its ramifications for the sacred law: the earth in its entirety is made a masjid. What does this mean?
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Basit Kareem Iqbal
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