Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette MADINAH — Muslims around the world cherish the memory of visiting this blessed city and praying at the Prophet's Mosque, second only to Makkah's Grand Mosque in sanctity and holiness. Whether a resident in the Kingdom or a foreign visitor, any pilgrim, as soon as he or she arrives in the holy city, will be all the more eager to enter the sanctuary known as Rawda Al-Shareef and greet the Prophet (peace be upon him) resting in his grave. “Whoever visits me after I have passed, visits me as if it is during my lifetime,” an authentic Hadith quotes the Prophet as saying. Rawda Al-Shareef is a small stretch of space inside the sprawling mosque complex between the pulpit of the Prophet and his house. The Prophet and two of his most trusted companions are buried there. This piece of ground and the entire area that encompasses the resting place of the Prophet is of significant importance: “Between my house and my pulpit lies one of the gardens of Paradise,” the Prophet had once said. Offering voluntary prayers at this place is considered one of the most rewarding acts of worship. Women are allowed into the area at designated hours. An exhibition of high decorum is expected of people visiting the sanctuary. However, the behavior of some pilgrims at this sacred place is mind-boggling. Many women coming out of the area are seen scrawling their names and other remarks on the walls of the mosque. The canvas partition that separates women from the men's area resembles the pages of a diary. Women of all nationalities and ages can be seen engaging in the practice. Curious about their motives, Saudi Gazette approached a few of the women jotting down their names on the mosque's walls and learned that they do so in the hope that they could come back to the holy sanctuary once again. Eman, an Egyptian woman, picked up her pen and started writing the names of her siblings and their children on the canvas wall. She said all of them had asked her to call their names within the mosque and write them down so that they could come to perform Haj and visit the Prophet's Mosque one day. “This is a tradition in our family; we ask anyone coming here to write our names so we will have the honor of visiting this holy place,” said Eman. Samia, an Iraqi pilgrim, believes that every person who has written his or her name on any side of the mosque does so in the hope of visiting the place again one day. “We don't write the names of our family members and friends alone, we also write expressions greeting the Prophet (peace be upon him). We sign our names to indicate that we have been here and that we wish to be here again and again,” said Samia. Om Hani, a first-time pilgrim from Pakistan, says her compatriots have a tendency to write their names in spiritually significant places, including mosques. Om Hani came for the pilgrimage with her husband, who has visited the holy city twice before. She says people also scribble their names on walls and rocks around Makkah and Madinah in the hope that they remember the places when they return. Regardless what the pilgrims say or believe, many people feel that writing one's name inside mosques and other places of spiritual importance is tantamount to graffiti. They consider disfiguration of mosque walls a breach of sanctity and an additional headache for maintenance and cleaning crews.
