Section: The Second Category of Places
The second category consists of sites that enjoy a particular distinction, yet that distinction does not warrant treating the place as a recurring festival (ʿīd), nor does it justify performing prayer or similar acts of worship there.
Among such locations are the graves of the prophets and the righteous. Both the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the early generations forbade turning these graves into festivals—whether in broad terms or through specific pronouncements—and they explained what the term “festival” actually means.
- General evidence:
Abū Dāwūd relates in his Sunan: “Aḥmad b. Ṣāliḥ narrated to us (1); he said, ‘I read before ʿAbd Allāh b. Nāfiʿ (2), who informed me that Ibn Abī Dhʿib (3) reported from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘Do not turn your houses …’”
(1) Ahmad ibn Salih al-Misri, Abu Jaʿfar—known as Ibn al-Tabari—is classed as a reliable ḥāfiẓ (thiqah, a hadith master) from the tenth generation. Al-Nasāʾī criticized him for a few minor errors. Al-Bukhārī, Abū Dāwūd, and al-Tirmidhī (in al-Shamāʾil) transmit his reports. He died in 248 AH/862 CE at the age of seventy-eight. See: Ibn Ḥajar, Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, 1:16, no. 58.
(2) The author has already treated this narrator at length. Ibn Ḥajar states in Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb: “reliable; his written transmission is sound, but his memorization is somewhat weak.” He died in 206 AH/821 CE, and his ḥadīth are found in Muslim and the Four Sunan. See: Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, 1:456, no. 686.
(3) Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Mughīra ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Dhiʾb al-Qurashī al-ʿĀmirī, Abū al-Ḥārith al-Madani, was a trustworthy and distinguished jurist from the seventh generation. All six canonical collections include his reports. He died in 158 AH/775 CE. See: Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, 2:184, no. 462.