The arch-niche. He said, “It is something found in churches, so do not imitate the People of the Book.”
Ubayd ibn Abī al-Jaʿd reported: “The Companions of Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to say, ‘Among the signs of the Hour is that altars will be erected inside the mosque,’ meaning the arches.”
There is a considerable number of such reports from the Companions in this regard.
As for the cases we have mentioned, some are matters of public renown, and we know of no one who opposed what we have transmitted from the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—concerning their general aversion to resembling the disbelievers and the non-Arabs, even though certain specific issues are debated and interpreted differently; this is not the place to delve into those details.
Just as they are unanimously agreed on adhering to the Book and the Sunnah—despite differing over some particular rulings due to interpretation—so too their consensus on disliking imitation of the disbelievers and the non-Arabs is firmly established.
(1) A taq is what we now call a mihrab (the prayer niche). More generally, a taq is any arched or vaulted part of a building—that is, a curved structure—from which the mihrab takes its name. See: al-Qamus al-Muhit, Bāb al-Qāf, Fasl al-Tāʾ, 3:269.
(2) The printed edition has the word min (“from”).
(3) See: Musannaf Ibn Abi Shayba 1:59. Al-Bazzar also transmits it with a sound chain from Ibn Masʿud; see: Kashf al-Astar 1:210, no. 416.
(4) The narrator is Ubayd ibn Abi al-Jaʿd al-Ghatafani. Ibn Hajar rates him “reliable, third generation,” and Ibn Hibban likewise declares him trustworthy. See: Taqrib al-Tahdhib 1:542, no. 1539; Khulasat al-Tadhhib, p. 254.
(5) ʿAbd al-Razzaq records—through al-Thawri, Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad, and Ubayd ibn Abi al-Jaʿd al-Ashjaʿi, from Kaʿb—the report: “In the latter days a people will appear whose lifespans are shortened; they will beautify their mosques and install in them altars like the altars of the Christians …” and so forth. See: al-Musannaf 2:413, no. 3903; al-Bayhaqi, al-Sunan al-Kubra 2:439.
(6) In manuscript Ṭ the wording is fa-in (“for indeed”).
(7) The word li-taʾwil is absent from manuscript A.