The Holy City of Madinah is a pilgrimage city second only to the Holy City of Makkah, and is the city to which the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and his followers migrated in 622 AD (the hijrah).
According to Islamic tradition, when the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, made the hijrah, with the first Muslim community, his first act on arrival in the Holy City of Madinah was to locate a suitable piece of land for the enclosure that was to become his Holy Mosque. The Mosque was erected as a combined effort by all the Muslim followers of the Prophet, and its basic design is said to have survived ever since as a model for all subsequent Mosques.
The Prophet’s Mosque contains the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and is therefore one of Islam’s most sacred shrines. (The first two caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar, are also buried there.)
