Sirah

The First Eid Prayer-Ground

The first obligatory Ramadan and the first Eid at the Madinan musalla, 2 AH

2 AH / 624 CE

Imagined 360° reconstruction of The First Eid Prayer-Ground

Educational historical reconstruction

Where

The open prayer-ground (musalla) outside Madinah

24.4709, 39.6051 · View on OpenStreetMap

Background

In the second year after the Hijrah, 624 CE, the fasting of the month of Ramadan was made an obligation upon the Muslim community by the revelation of al-Baqara, Q 2:183-185: 'O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may attain taqwa… The month of Ramadan in which the Qur'an was sent down…' The same year saw the first Eid al-Fitr, the festival that closes the month, and, in the standard Sunni accounts, the institution of the obligatory charity of fitr (zakat al-fitr) to be paid before the festival prayer. The hadith collections record that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed the two festival prayers, of al-Fitr and later al-Adha, not in the mosque but at an open prayer-ground outside Madinah, the musalla, and that he went out to it with the whole community, men, women, and children (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, in the chapters of the two Eids). The open-air festival prayer became the established sunna, distinguishing the Eid prayer from the ordinary congregational prayers held in the mosque. This scene depicts that first festival morning: the level open ground outside the town set aside as the musalla, the long ranks of worshippers forming at dawn, with the mud-brick houses and date-gardens of Madinah behind. The plainness, open earth, no permanent structure, is historically exact and is itself the subject. In keeping with the strictest visual ethics, no figure is identifiable and the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is not depicted; the congregation is shown distant and anonymous.

What you see

An open, level ground just outside the built-up town, with the mud-brick houses and the date-palm gardens of the oasis and a low town wall behind, a deliberately open-air prayer-place, not a roofed mosque.

Long ranks of worshippers are forming up in the open at first light, facing one direction in ordered rows across the bare ground, a mass congregational prayer held outdoors rather than inside a building.

The light is the pale gold of early dawn; the gathering is for a morning prayer at the start of a day of festival, after a completed month.

No pulpit of stone, no permanent structure, at most a simple marker for the prayer-leader on the open ground. The plainness is the point: the festival prayer is held on cleared open earth set aside as the musalla.

The scene marks two firsts of the new community: the first Ramadan fasted as an obligation, and the first festival prayer (Eid) that closed it, both instituted in the second year at Madinah.

Fasting the month had just been made obligatory by revelation: 'O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you' (al-Baqara, Q 2:183-185).

The dating is the second year after the Hijrah, 624 CE, the sources place the obligation of the Ramadan fast and the first Eid al-Fitr in that year.

Primary sources

The Qur'an, al-Baqara (Q 2:183-185): The revelation prescribing the fast of Ramadan. The foundational text for the obligation; cited inline.

Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim (3rd c. AH): The chapters on the two Eids: the Prophet's praying the festival prayer at the open musalla, going out with the whole community, and the rulings of zakat al-fitr. The basis for the open-air prayer-ground depiction.

Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra (9th c.): Places the obligation of the Ramadan fast and the first Eid in 2 AH within the sequence of Madinan legislation.

Guess places like this in GeoSiyer

Drop into a 360° scene from Islamic history and pin where — and when — it happened.

Play GeoSiyer