Building the city

He ﷺ stayed some nights at Qubāʾ and built the mosque founded upon taqwā. Entering Madinah, he let his camel choose the ground and bought the plot from two orphan boys rather than accept it as a gift. The mosque was built of palm trunks and mud brick, with the Ṣuffah at its rear for the poor who studied there, and his own rooms alongside — the mosque was also the school, the court and the assembly.

• 9:108 — 'A mosque founded upon taqwā from the first day.'

• The first institution of the new society was a place of worship and learning, not a fortress or a market.
• He paid the orphans in full — legitimacy of property before public benefit.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3906; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah

He stayed at Qubāʾ several days and founded its mosque — the first mosque built on taqwā. Leaving on Friday, the time of prayer reached him among Banū Sālim ibn ʿAwf, and he prayed Jumuʿah there with about a hundred men: the first Friday prayer of the Muslim community. Entering the city, every clan took hold of his camel's halter inviting him to stay with them, and he answered that the camel was under command; where she knelt, he stayed — the land of two orphan boys, which he bought and where the mosque was built.

• The first public act in the new city was a congregational prayer, not a proclamation of power.
• He avoided offending any clan by refusing to choose between them himself.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3906; Ibn Hishām; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī

He ﷺ made brotherhood between the migrants who arrived with nothing and the Anṣār, who offered to split their property; ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf asked instead to be shown the market. A written document then set out the terms of the city: the believers are one community, the Jews of the tribes have their religion and the Muslims theirs, mutual defence of Madinah, and disputes referred to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.

• 59:9 — The Anṣār who 'prefer others over themselves, even in poverty'.

• Poverty was solved by pairing households, not by charity alone — dignity and work were preserved.
• The first Islamic polity was constituted in writing and included non-Muslims as parties to it.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3937; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah

The Muslims used to gather for prayer by estimating the time. They discussed a bell like the Christians, a horn like the Jews, a fire lit on a height — and the Prophet ﷺ was not pleased with any of it. ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd رضي الله عنه saw the words of the adhān in a dream, and ʿUmar رضي الله عنه had seen the same. The Prophet ﷺ said it was a true vision and told him to teach it to Bilāl رضي الله عنه, who had the stronger voice. From then the city was ordered around Bilāl's voice five times a day.

• The identity of the community was set early, and it was set apart from what came before it.
• The daily rhythm of a Muslim city is sound: five calls, out loud, in Arabic, from a freed slave.

Sunan Abī Dāwūd 498; Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 189; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī