Sunan Ibn Majah
Sunan Ibn Majah 738
حَدَّثَنَا يُونُسُ بْنُ عَبْدِ الأَعْلَى، حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ وَهْبٍ، عَنْ إِبْرَاهِيمَ بْنِ نَشِيطٍ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ أَبِي حُسَيْنٍ النَّوْفَلِيِّ، عَنْ عَطَاءِ بْنِ أَبِي رَبَاحٍ، عَنْ جَابِرِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ قَالَ " مَنْ بَنَى مَسْجِدًا لِلَّهِ كَمَفْحَصِ قَطَاةٍ أَوْ أَصْغَرَ بَنَى اللَّهُ لَهُ بَيْتًا فِي الْجَنَّةِ " .
Unreviewed translation. All hadiths in this collection are available in five languages. Titles and introductions may remain in Arabic.
Yunus ibn 'Abd al-A'la narrated to us: 'Abdullah ibn Wahb narrated to us, from Ibrahim ibn Nashit, from 'Abdullah ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Husayn al-Nawfali, from 'Ata' ibn Abi Rabah, from Jabir ibn 'Abdullah, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘Whoever builds a mosque for Allah as small as a sandgrouse's nest, or smaller, Allah will build for him a house in Paradise.’
Notes and open questions — unreviewed
The source compares the mosque to a qaṭā bird's nesting hollow (مَفْحَصِ قَطَاةٍ); ‘sandgrouse’ is a tentative identification of the bird.
كَمَفْحَصِ قَطَاةٍ
The rare bird name and the precise referent of its nesting place may require specialist confirmation.
Is ‘sandgrouse's nesting hollow’ the appropriate rendering of this comparison?