be raised’ (Q. 24:36) to mean that their buildings must literally be made lofty; rather, what is meant is that they be honored: no obscene words are to be uttered in them, they must be kept free of filth and impurity, and voices are not to be raised inside them. End quote.

The sense of the ḥadith, ‘I was not commanded to raise its structure,’ is that it should not become a pretext for adornment and embellishment—practices borrowed from the People of the Book—and in it there is a kind of rebuke and censure,” said al-Munāwī in al-Fayḍ. Al-Ṣanʿānī added, “His statement, ‘I was not commanded,’ indicates that such elevation is not praiseworthy, for had it been praiseworthy Allah would have commanded him to do it.”

Third, one must not decorate or beautify it, for that is a waste of wealth on something of no real benefit; moreover, it distracts the worshipper from khushūʿ (humble concentration), which is the very soul and essence of the prayer. For that reason the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “Nothing that distracts the worshipper should remain in the House,” meaning the Kaʿbah, as cited earlier.

He—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said this when he saw the two horns of the ram, as mentioned previously under the heading of prayer inside the Kaʿbah. What, then, would he have said had he seen the paintings and ornamental designs with which some Muslim princes and kings have become so enamored?

Explicit ḥadiths have been transmitted forbidding the embellishment of mosques, but every one of them has some weakness in its chain. For that reason we have preferred to cite this sound ḥadith, for it adequately conveys the intended meaning. Nevertheless, there is no harm in presenting whatever of those other reports is readily available.