“But the commentators, generally taking the day spoken of in both these passages to be the Day of Judgment, have recourse to several expedients to reconcile them, and as both passages seem to contradict what Muḥammadan doctors teach, that God will judge all creatures in the space of half-a-day, they suppose those large numbers of years are designed to express the time of the previous attendance of those who are to be judged, or else to the space wherein God will judge the unbelieving nations, of which, they say, there will be fifty, the trial of each nation taking up 1,000 years, though that of the true believers will be over in the short space above mentioned.”
MABNĀ ʾT-TAṢAWWUF (مبنى التصوف). Lit. “The Foundation of Ṣūfīism.” A term used by the Ṣūfīs to embrace the three principles of their system. (1) The choice of the ascetic life; (2) The intention to bestow freely upon others; (3) The giving up of one’s own will and desires, and desiring only the will of God. (See ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
AL-MADĪNAH (المدينة). Lit. “The city.” The city celebrated as the burial place of Muḥammad. It was called Yas̤rib (see Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxiii. 13]), but was distinguished as al-Madīnah, “the city,” and Madīnatu ʾn-Nabī, “the city of the Prophet,” after it had become famous by giving shelter to Muḥammad. It is esteemed only second to Makkah in point of sanctity. Muḥammad is related to have said, “There are angels guarding the roads to al-Madīnah, on account of which neither plague, or the Dajjāl (Antichrist) can enter it.” “I was ordered,” he said, “to flee to a city which shall eat up (conquer) all other cities, and its name is now al-Madīnah (the city); verily she puts away evil from man, like as the forge purifies iron.” “God has made the name of al-Madīnah both t̤ābah and t̤aiyibah,” i.e. both good and odoriferous.
Al-Madīnah is built on the elevated plain of Arabia, not far from the eastern base of the ridge of mountains which divide the table-land from the lower country between it and the Red Sea. The town stands on the lowest part, on the plain where the watercourses unite, which produce in the rainy season numerous pools of stagnant water, and render the climate unhealthy. Gardens and date-plantations, interspersed with fields, inclose the town on three sides; on the side towards Makkah the rocky nature of the soil renders cultivation impossible. The city forms an oval about 2,800 paces in circuit, ending in a point. The castle is built at the point on a small rocky elevation. The whole is inclosed by a thick wall of stone, between 35 and 40 feet high, flanked by about 30 towers and surrounded by a ditch. Three well-built gates lead into the town. The houses are well built of stone, and generally two stories high. As this stone is of a dark colour, the streets have a gloomy aspect, and are for the most part very narrow, often only two or three paces across; a few of the principal streets are paved with stone. There are only two large streets which contain shops. The principal buildings within the city are the great mosque containing the tomb of Muḥammad, two fine colleges, and the castle, standing at the western extremity of the city, which is surrounded by strong walls and several high and solid towers, and contains a deep well of good water.
The town is well supplied with sweet water by a subterraneous canal which runs from the village of Qubāʾ, about three-quarters of a mile distant in a southern direction. In several parts of the town steps are made down to the canal, where the inhabitants supply themselves with water which, however, contains nitre, and produces indigestion in persons not accustomed to it. There are also many wells scattered over the town; every garden has one by which it is irrigated; and when the ground is bored to the depth of twenty-five or thirty feet, water is found in plenty. During the rainy season, many torrents descend from the higher grounds to the lower depression in which al-Madīnah is built, and part of the city is inundated. This plentiful supply of water made this site a considerable settlement of Arabs long before it became sacred among the Muḥammadans, by the flight, residence, and death of the Prophet, to which it owes its name of Madīnatu ʾn-Nabī, or the City of the Prophet (See Burckhardt’s Travels in Arabia.)
An account of the Prophet’s mosque is given under [MASJIDU ʾN-NABI], and of the burial chamber of Muḥammad under [HUJRAH].
MADRASAH (مدرسة). A school. [[EDUCATION].]
MADYAN (مدين). Midian. The descendants of Midian, the son of Abraham and Keturah, and a city and district bearing his name, situated on the Red Sea, south-east of Mount Sinai.
Mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah vii. 83]: “We sent to Madyan their brother Shuʿaib.” [[SHUʿAIB].]
MAFQŪD (مفقود). A legal term for a person who is lost, and of whom no information can be obtained. He is not considered legally dead until the period expires when he would be ninety years old.