and al-Hudaybiyah lies to the west of it. The following year he performed the compensatory ʿUmrah (ʿUmrat al-Qaḍāʾ), entered Mecca with many of his Companions, and remained there for three nights. After the Conquest of Mecca he moved toward Hunayn and al-Ṭāʾif, east of the city, fought the tribe of Hawāzin in the valley of Hunayn, besieged the people of al-Ṭāʾif, and at al-Jiʿirrānah distributed the spoils of Hunayn—then came from al-Jiʿirrānah to Mecca for another ʿUmrah. His fourth ʿUmrah was performed along with the Farewell Pilgrimage, in which the overwhelming majority of Muslims accompanied him; none failed to make Hajj with him except whom Allah willed.

Throughout all of this, neither he nor any of his Companions ever went to the cave of Ḥirā’, visited it, or sought out any of the surrounding sites near Mecca. Acts of worship were confined exclusively to the Sacred Mosque (1), the area between Ṣafā and Marwah, Minā and Muzdalifah (2), and ʿArafāt. He offered the Ẓuhr and ʿAṣr prayers in the valley of ʿUrnah, and on the Day of ʿArafah a tent was pitched for him at Namirah, adjacent to ʿArafāt.

After him, his rightly guided caliphs and the rest of the earliest believers likewise never traveled to the cave of Ḥirā’ or similar places for prayer and supplication.

The same holds true for the cave mentioned in the Qur’an:

“the second of the two, when they were in the cave” (at-Tawbah 9:40) (3).

That cave is on Mount Thawr, to the south (4) of Mecca; his community has not been instructed to journey to it, visit it, pray there, or make supplication. Nor did the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—build any mosque in Mecca other than the Sacred Mosque. All of the other mosques—such as the so-called “Birthplace Mosque” and the like—are later innovations. Likewise, visiting the site of his birth or the location of the Pledge of ʿAqabah behind Minā, where a mosque has now been built, has not been legislated for his nation.