1200 – Abu Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Mounts are not to be saddled for a journey except to three mosques: the Sacred Mosque, al-Aqsa Mosque, and this mosque of mine.” Agreed upon, and the wording is al-Bukhārī’s. (1)
Lexical Notes
• la tushadd – the particle la is negative, and the verb that follows is in the passive voice.
• tushadd (to be tightened) – one says shadda ash-shayʾa yashudduhu shaddan, meaning “he bound it firmly.” The phrase shadd al-riḥāl (“tightening the saddles”) is a figurative expression for travelling.
• al-riḥāl – plural of rahl; here it denotes the wooden or leather packsaddle placed on a camel’s hump—its qitb and kowrah—and secured with ropes.
• al-Aqsa – “the farthest”; derived from qasā al-makān, “when a place lies far away.” It was so named because of its distance from the Sacred Mosque, and, it is said, because at that time no mosque lay beyond it.
Points Drawn from the Hadith
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The three favoured mosques—the Sacred Mosque, the Prophet’s Mosque, and al-Aqsa Mosque—possess special distinctions and virtues unmatched by any other spot on earth. Each of these purified mosques was built by a prophet: the Sacred Mosque by Abraham, the Close Friend of Allah; the Prophet’s Mosque by Allah’s Messenger Muhammad ﷺ; and al-Aqsa Mosque by Jacob. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them all.
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Shaykh al-Islām said: The mosques for which one is permitted to “tighten the saddles” are these three; travelling to them for prayer, supplication, remembrance, Qur’an recitation, or spiritual retreat is among