Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

ASAKWW and Happy new year.

Recently, my friends and I were discussing how does or who decides a building get a designation of a masjid? Final point of contention was that there is always a representative from the time of SA (eg. Imam, Dai etc) that has the authority in this era to perform the task. This basically implies that majority of the Islamic mosques are not officially approved masjids!

We also know that reciting immamat prayers in different masjids (al-aqsa, al-haram, local masjid etc) gets you certain amount of sawabs and when praying in a hall or alone you get 12 and 1 sawaabs respectively.

Questions
1. Who decided on the number of sawabs a person will receive when praying in different masjids?

2. Who declares in Islam whether a building is a masjid or not? In Bohra sect, Syedna Dr. Burhanuddin does the opening ceremony and declares that this is a masjid for prayers (waqaf).

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Who decides which place is a masjid

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Your Question: ….how does or who decides a building get a designation of a masjid?

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 72 Surah Jinn verse 18:

And the ‘masaajids’ are for Allah Alone. Therefore do not call upon anyone else in them along with Allah.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 9 Surah Taubah verse 18:

18 The masaajids of Allah shall be visited and maintained by such as believe in Allah and the Last Day, establish regular prayers, practice regular charity, and fear none except Allah. It is they who are expected to be on true guidance.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 24 Surah Noor verses 35-36:

35 Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a lamp: the Lamp enclosed in glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star: lit from a blessed Tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West whose oil is well-nigh luminous though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light. Allah doth set forth Parables for men: and Allah doth know all things.

36 (Lit is such a light) in houses (mosques) which Allah hath permitted to be raised to honor; for the celebration in them of His Name: in them is He Glorified in the mornings and in the evenings (again and again).

The literal meaning of the Arabic term ‘masjid’ means ‘a place where prostration or sajdah is done’; thus the very essence of the name ‘masjid’ implies that the main and very purpose of a ‘masjid’ in Islam is solely for the Remembrance and Worship of Allah Subhanah Alone.

No particular person has been vested with the monopoly or authority to alone declare a place a ‘masjid’! Any place which the believers decide to dedicate to the sole Remembrance and Worship of their Lord Most High can be dedicated as a ‘masjid’ by the believers.

Narrated Abu Dharr al-Ghaffari (r.a.) that the Messenger of Allah (saws) said: "Wherever you may be at the time of salah, you may pray, for it [the whole earth] is declared as a ‘masjid’ by Allah Subhanah."

Related by Bukhari and Muslim

Your Question: …Who decided on the number of sawabs a person will receive when praying in different masjids?

Allah Subhanah, the Supreme Lord of the Worlds Alone has the sole right to Decide and Declare what rewards He has Determined for which act of worship….and this message is communicated to His appointed Messengers who in turn communicate it to the believers.

Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 1.621 Narrated by Abu Salama bin Abdur Rahman

Abu Huraira said, "I heard Allah's Messenger (saws) saying, 'The reward of a prayer in congregation is twenty five (and in another narration twenty-seven) times greater than that of a prayer offered by a person alone.'”

Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 752 Narrated by Anas ibn Malik

Allah's Messenger (saws) said: ‘The prayer of a person in his house is a single prayer; his prayer in the mosque of his tribe has the reward of twenty-five (or twenty-seven) prayers; his prayer in the mosque of Aqsa has a reward of five hundred prayers; his prayer in my mosque (the Prophet's (saws) mosque in Medinah) has a reward of one thousand prayers; and the prayer in the Sacred Mosque at Makkah has a reward of one hundred thousand prayers.’

In light of the above quoted Guidance of the Messenger of Allah (saws) the rewards of prayers determined by Allah Subhanah are as follows:

1. One rewards if a believer offers their prayer alone.
2. The reward is multiplied by twenty-five (or twenty-seven) times, if the prayer is offered in congregation with the believers.
3. The reward is multiplied by 500 times if the prayer is offered at the Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem.
4. The reward is multiplied by 1,000 times if offered in the ‘Masjid Al-Nabawi’ in Madinah.
5. The reward is multiplied by 100,000 times if offered in the ‘Masjid Al-Haraam’ in Makkah.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan