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The purport of the ḥadīth is that no other place on earth may be singled out for worship by saddling one’s mount and travelling to it, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) confined that privilege to these three mosques. The most serious and most perilous violation of this principle is to set out for graves—whether the graves of prophets, of the righteous, or of anyone else—for travelling to them constitutes excess in regard to those interred there and is a direct path to temptation that may end in worshipping them and calling upon them instead of Allah.
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Whatever additional structures have been annexed to these three mosques share in their multiplied reward; the worshipper receives the same original merit when praying in those extensions.
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Al-Furūʿ states that the apparent wording of the disciples of Imām Aḥmad concerning the Sacred Mosque refers to the mosque itself. Even so, the Sanctified Precinct (al-Ḥaram) is superior to the area outside it (al-Ḥill), so prayer within the Ḥaram is better. Al-Qāḍī and others explained that their statement pertains only to nomenclature, not to legal rulings. On that basis one may conclude that the multiplied reward applies to the entire Ḥaram just as it does to the mosque proper—a position categorically affirmed by the author of Al-Hādī from among our scholars.
Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Bāz likewise held that the multiplication of reward encompasses the whole Ḥaram, that is, every area demarcated by the boundary stones.
Ibn al-Jawzī reported that, according to most exegetes, the Night Journey began from the house of Umm Hānīʾ; if so, the term “the mosque” would encompass the entire Ḥaram.
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Here ends Volume Three.
The next is Volume Four, which opens with
(The Book of Pilgrimage).