The Virtues of Building Masajid in Light of Hadith
Regarding those who strive for the maintenance, construction and development of masajid, and who find inner peace in their being populated, what greater virtue can there be than this Quranic testimony of faith? Moreover, it is not limited to that; the hadith also contain many virtues of building masajid. Thus:
A House in Paradise:
Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Jami’ al-Tirmidhi, Sunan Ibn Majah and Musnad Ahmad report from Hadrat Uthman Dhu al-Nurayn (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet ﷺ said:
➊ من بنى لله مسجدا بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة
“Whoever builds a masjid for the pleasure of Allah, Allah builds a house for him in Paradise.”
In another narration it is:
بنى الله له مثله فى الجنة
“Allah builds for him a similar house in Paradise.”
➋ Seeking the pleasure of Allah is a condition, for showing off destroys deeds. Therefore, the Prophet ﷺ indicated this foundation for building a masjid: that it be done with sincerity and for Allah alone, without pride, boasting or display. This is made explicit in another hadith, in which, according to the narration of Tabarani al-Awsat, Umm al-Mu’minin Hadrat Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) relates that the Prophet ﷺ said:
من بنى مسجدا لا يريد به رياء ولا سمعة بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة
“Whoever builds a masjid, not intending by it showing off or ostentation (but built for the sake of Allah), Allah builds a house for him in Paradise.”
➌ In some hadith, one more condition is attached to this reward and virtue: that the masjid be in a place where people pray. It should not be that a masjid is built somewhere, decorated well, yet no arrangements for salah and congregation are made, but it is kept locked, or built in a place where people do not pass by at all. Clearly, the reward of such a masjid will be of the same kind. This is why the Prophet’s ﷺ statement reported from Hadrat Wathila ibn al-Asqa’ (may Allah be pleased with him) in Musnad Ahmad and Tabarani is:
من بنى مسجدا يصلى فيه بنى الله عز وجل له فى الجنة أفضل منه
Whoever builds a masjid in which salah is performed, Allah the Mighty and Majestic builds for him a house in Paradise that is more excellent than it.
➍ Whereas in Sunan al-Nasa’i, Musnad Ahmad and Sharh al-Sunnah of al-Baghawi from Hadrat Amr ibn Abasa (may Allah be pleased with him), and in Sahih Ibn Hibban and Sunan Ibn Majah from Hadrat Umar al-Faruq (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet’s ﷺ statement is:
من بنى لله مسجدا يذكر فيه بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة
Whoever builds a masjid in which Allah is remembered, Allah builds a house for him in Paradise.
In the first hadith the words are يصلى فيه, and in this hadith the words are يذكر فيه; yet the meaning of both includes those who pray all the more, since salah is also the remembrance of Allah.
➎ Nor is it necessary to build only a very large congregational masjid to obtain this reward; rather, one obtains it by building a masjid of any size, small or large, as the hadith reported from Hadrat Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) in Sunan al-Tirmidhi explicitly states. He relates that the Prophet ﷺ said:
من بنى لله مسجدا صغيرا كان أو كبيرا بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة
Whoever builds a small or large masjid, Allah builds a house for him in Paradise.
➏ Some hadith even mention to the extent that if someone builds a masjid the size of the nest of the qata, a bird similar to a pigeon, he will still be granted a house in Paradise by Allah. The qata is a bird like a pigeon that flies many miles in search of water, then returns to its nest and gives water to its young; it stays where grass and water are generally found nearby. The people of Arabia would recognise from its call that water was present somewhere close by. The Arabs also call this bird “saduq”.
The glad tidings of a house in Paradise for building a masjid equal to the nest of this bird qata are also found in a hadith reported from Hadrat Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him) in Musnad al-Bazzar, Mu’jam al-Tabarani al-Saghir and Sahih Ibn Hibban, in which the Prophet ﷺ said:
من بنى لله مسجدا قدر مفحص قطاة بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة
Whoever builds a masjid even equal to the nest of a qata, Allah will build a house for him in Paradise.
➐ Whereas in Musnad Ahmad and al-Bazzar, from Hadrat Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), the Prophet’s ﷺ statement is:
من بنى لله مسجدا ولو كمفحص قطاة لبيضها بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة
Whoever builds even a mosque as small as the nest that a qata bird makes to lay its eggs, Allah will build a house for him in Paradise.
➑ Whereas in Sunan Ibn Majah and Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him), the glad tidings of a house in Paradise are mentioned for a mosque even smaller than that. He narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said:
من بنى لله مسجدا ولو كمفحص قطاة أو أصغر بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة
Whoever builds a mosque for the pleasure of Allah, even if it is the size of a qata bird’s nest or smaller, Allah will build a house for him in Paradise.
And the words “the nest of a qata bird” have come in the hadith of Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him) in Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, in the hadith from Anas and Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) in al-Tabarani’s al-Awsat, and in the hadith from Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) in Abu Nu’aym’s Hilyat al-Awliya.
And most scholars have taken the mention of the nest to be hyperbole, because the nest in which a qata lays its eggs and sleeps is not even large enough for a prayer to be performed in such a space. The fact that this word is used for hyperbole is also supported by the wording of the hadith from Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that we have just mentioned.
And some scholars have said that it is not meant as hyperbole; rather, its literal meaning is intended, namely that if somewhere a mosque needed only that much (extension) and it was provided, then such an addition would have this status. Or that a group of Muslims, that is several individuals, jointly built a mosque, and each one’s share of the mosque came to only as much space as a nest occupies; even then, Allah will grant him a house in Paradise. And receiving a house in Paradise is itself a clear guarantee of entry into Paradise. For whoever is not admitted into Paradise, how will he enter the house that is built for him there? So the clear meaning of receiving a house in Paradise is that he is admitted into Paradise.
➒ In any case, the glad tidings of being admitted into Paradise and being granted a house in Paradise are also mentioned in some other hadiths, one of which is narrated by Ibn Majah from Amir al-Mu’minin Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), in which he narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said:
من بنى لله مسجدا بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة
Whoever builds a mosque seeking the pleasure of Allah, Allah builds a house for him in Paradise.
➓ And in Musnad Ahmad, from Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), and in al-Tabarani’s al-Mu’jam, from Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him), the Prophet ﷺ said:
من بنى لله مسجدا بنى الله له بيتا فى الجنة أوسع منه
Whoever builds a mosque for the pleasure of Allah, Allah builds for him a house larger than that mosque.
⓫ In a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) in Sunan Ibn Majah, al-Bayhaqi and Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah, the Prophet ﷺ said that after a believer dies, the rewards of the following deeds continue to reach him:
① Knowledge that he taught and spread.
② A righteous child.
③ A copy of the Quran that he left as an inheritance.
④ A travellers’ lodge that he built.
⑤ A canal of water that he caused to flow.
⑥ And a charity that he gave while in sound mind and good health.
⑦ And apart from these six deeds, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned a seventh deed in this hadith:
أو بناه مسجدا
Or he built a mosque.
Hasan hadiths have been narrated in Shu’ab al-Iman of al-Bayhaqi from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) and in al-Tabarani’s al-Mu’jam from Abu Qirsafah (may Allah be pleased with him).
As for the mention in some hadiths of a house larger and more spacious than that mosque, or a house better than that mosque, or building a house like it, this is جزاء من جنس العمل (a recompense of the same kind as the deed). As for the house being better or more spacious, these are not matters of comparison. For according to a sahih hadith, a single hand-span of Paradise is better than the world and everything in it. And although the house in Paradise will be only one in quantity and number, it will be far superior in quality, beauty, and in splendour and grandeur.
⓬ We wish to conclude the virtues of building mosques with a hadith after which there is no need to mention any other virtue. It is a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ called mosques the houses of Allah.
The Kaaba is the House of Allah, known as Bayt Allah, while for the glad tidings of Paradise and a house in Paradise promised to the one who builds a mosque, the deed that the Prophet ﷺ described, according to the narration of Umm al-Mu’minin Umm Habibah (may Allah be pleased with her) in al-Fawa’id of Samawayh, is:
من بنى لله بيتا
That whoever builds a house for Allah.
Consider: according to the beautiful expression of the Prophet ﷺ, what pleasures and rewards from the Creator of the universe will be given to the one who builds the House of Allah?
And in this same hadith, it is also clearly stated that mosques are the houses of Allah. They are not ordinary buildings; they hold the great honour of being the houses of Allah. Therefore, they should be respected, esteemed and honoured accordingly.
