Prophet's Mosque in the context of "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques"

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number 2 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious population, after Christianity.

Muslims believe that there is a primordial faith that was revealed many times through earlier prophets and messengers, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, and they believe that Islam is the universal and complete version of this faith. Muslims consider the Quran to be the verbatim word of God and the unaltered, final revelation. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations, such as the Tawrat (the Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injil (Gospel). They believe that Muhammad is the main and final of God's prophets, through whom the religion was completed. The teachings and normative examples of Muhammad, called the Sunnah, documented in accounts called the hadith, provide a constitutional model for Muslims. Islam is based on the belief in the oneness and uniqueness of God (tawhid), and belief in an afterlife (akhirah) with the Last Judgment—wherein the righteous will be rewarded in paradise (jannah) and the unrighteous will be punished in hell (jahannam). The Five Pillars, considered obligatory acts of worship, are the Islamic oath and creed (shahada), daily prayers (salah), almsgiving (zakat), fasting (sawm) in the month of Ramadan, and a pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. Islamic law, sharia, touches on virtually every aspect of life, from banking and finance and welfare to men's and women's roles and the environment. The two main religious festivals are Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The three holiest sites in Islam are Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

The holiest sites in Islam are located in the Middle East. While the significance of most places typically varies depending on the Islamic sect, there is a consensus across all mainstream branches of the religion that affirms three cities as having the highest degree of holiness, in descending order: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. Mecca's Al-Masjid al-Haram (including the Kaaba), Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, and Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque are all revered by Muslims as sites of great importance.

After the consensus on the first three sites as well as further sites associated with the family of Muhammad, there is a divergence between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims on the designation of additional holy sites. Even within each sect, there are disputes as to whether any uniquely holy cities exist apart from the aforementioned three. For Sunnis that argue that there are, sites associated with the Rashidun, other Companions of Muhammad, and Biblical prophets often hold a high level of significance (see holiest sites in Sunni Islam). In particular, the Umayyad Mosque in the city of Damascus and the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron have held interchangeable significance as the fourth and fifth-holiest Islamic sites, respectively, for many Sunni Muslims. For Shias, sites associated with the Imamah hold a high level of significance (see holiest sites in Shia Islam).

Sahih al-Bukhari (Arabic: صحيح البخاري, romanized: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī) is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari (d. 870) in the musannaf format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside Sahih Muslim, as the most authentic after the Qur'an.

Al-Bukhari organized the book mostly in the Hijaz at the Sacred Mosque of Mecca and the Prophet's Mosque of Medina and completed the work in Bukhara around 846 (232 AH). The work was examined by his teachers Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ali ibn al-Madini, Yahya ibn Ma'in and others.

A mosque (/mɒsk/ MOSK), also called a masjid (/ˈmæsdʒɪd, ˈmʌs-/ MASS-jid, MUSS-), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard.

Originally, mosques were simple places of prayer for the early Muslims, and may have been open spaces rather than elaborate buildings. In the first stage of Islamic architecture (650–750 CE), early mosques comprised open and closed covered spaces enclosed by walls, often with minarets, from which the Islamic call to prayer was issued on a daily basis. It is typical of mosque buildings to have a special ornamental niche (a mihrab) set into the wall in the direction of the city of Mecca (the qibla), which Muslims must face during prayer, as well as a facility for ritual cleansing (wudu). The pulpit (minbar), from which public sermons (khutbah) are delivered on the event of Friday prayer, was, in earlier times, characteristic of the central city mosque, but has since become common in smaller mosques. To varying degrees, mosque buildings are designed so that there are segregated spaces for men and women. This basic pattern of organization has assumed different forms depending on the region, period, and Islamic denomination.

The Mawlid (Arabic: مولد) is an annual festival commemorating the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad on the traditional date of 12 Rabi' al-Awwal, the third month of the Islamic calendar.

The Muslim general Gökböri, a deputy of Saladin (r. 1174–1193), is believed to have been the first to publicly celebrate Mawlid, which he did in an impressive ceremony at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. The Ottomans under Murad III (r. 1574–1595) declared it an official holiday.