The majority of scholars hold that any extension added to the Prophet’s Mosque shares exactly the same legal status as the original structure; therefore, prayers performed in the new sections receive the same multiplied reward, and travelling to them falls under the same ruling as travelling to the rest of the Mosque. The first sizable enlargement took place during the caliphate of al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, builder of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Acting on his orders, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz—then his governor over Madinah—carried out the work and incorporated the Prophetic Chamber into the Mosque, as will be detailed later. After that, the Mosque was expanded several more times, including on the qiblah side, so that today the Rawḍah and the minbar lie behind the foremost rows, exactly as one can observe.

Ibn Isḥāq relates: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stayed with Abū Ayyūb until he had completed the building of his mosque and his living quarters. The Prophet ﷺ himself took part in the construction to spur the Muslims on, and both the Emigrants and the Helpers laboured continuously at it. One of the Muslims chanted:

If we sit idle while the Prophet toils,
Our work would surely go astray and spoil.

As they built, the believers kept repeating:

No life is real save life in the Hereafter;
O Allah, have mercy on the Helpers and the Emigrants.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ would join them, saying,

“No life is real save life in the Hereafter;
O Allah, have mercy on the Emigrants and the Helpers.”

ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir then came in, burdened with bricks, and complained, “Messenger of Allah, they are wearing me out; they load me with what they do not carry themselves!” Umm Salamah reports: I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ brush the dust from his thick, curly hair with his hand while saying,

“Alas for the son of Sumayyah! They will not be the ones who kill you;
the rebellious faction will be the one that kills you.”

This chain is disconnected at this point—indeed, there is a break between Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq and Umm Salamah. Muslim, however, has recorded the report with an unbroken chain in his Ṣaḥīḥ through Shuʿbah, from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ, from Saʿīd and al-Ḥasan (the two sons of Abū al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī), from their mother Khayrah, the freedwoman of Umm Salamah, on the authority of Umm Salamah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared, “The rebellious faction will kill ʿAmmār.” Muslim also narrates it through Ibn ʿUlayyah, from Ibn ʿAwn, from al-Ḥasan, from his mother, from Umm Salamah, stating that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to ʿAmmār while he was carrying stones, “Woe to you, son of Sumayyah! The rebellious faction will kill you.”