The Terms ‘al-Munawarah’ and ‘al-Mukkarama’ – Shaykh Hamad al-Ansaari (rahimahullaah)

The Term ‘al-Munawarah’

Hamad al-Ansaari (rahimahullaah) said:

‘I searched for the origin of what people say these days of al-Madina ‘al-Munawarah’ and I found that the first people to label it ‘al-Munawarah’ were the ‘Uthmaanyoon’.  As for the Companions and the Successors and those after them, then for many centuries they called it al-Madina an-Nabaweeyah.’

AbdulAwal bin Hamad al-Ansaari commented:

‘I noticed from my father -Rahimullaah- that if he saw a person write ‘al-Munawarah’, he would say to him to wipe out the word ‘al-Munawarah’ and write ‘an-Nabaweeyah.’[28]

‘Indeed the people of knowledge apply the term ‘an-Nabaweeya’ to al-Madina.’[29]

The Shaykh also said:

‘Applying the word ‘al-Munawarah’ after the word al-Madina was introduced by the non-Arabs.  What was well known by the Companions and the Successors was the addition ‘an-Nabaweeyah’. Likewise, adding the term ‘al-Mukkarama’ to Makkah is not known.’[30]

Source : Taken from A Brief Biography of Shaykh, ‘Allaama, al-Muhaddith Hamad al-Ansaari –Translated & Compiled  By  Abbas Abu Yahya

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