Masjid Al-Nabwi in the distance with Jannatul Baqi in the foreground.

Medina formed the first real community of Muslims after their migration from Mecca early in Islamic history. It’s because of this that a lot of the graves of the earliest Muslims are in Medina. The main graveyard of the Prophet’s (PBUH) companions and contemporaries is across the way from the central mosque and is accessible by visitors to the city after dawn until midday and then from the late afternoon until the night.

It’s a really strange place to visit. You’re in the final resting place of the some of the holiest people in Islamic history, the family of the Prophet (PBUH), and Muslims over the years. It’s spiritually enlightening. You open your mind to the kind of life you can lead.

Like at the grave of Muhammad (PBUH), there were lots of people worshipping at the graves. There were police officers and religious police advising people against such actions and telling them to stop. There were massive signs that quoted the Quran and Hadith that forbid the action of praying to the dead to help them. They were encouraging people to just pass their greetings to the dead and to use the opportunity to contemplate their own lives and worry about their own hereafter.

I walked around for about forty-five minutes to an hour a short while after the dawn prayer and took a few pictures (although it was banned) and this is my favourite.