the righteous deeds.
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He further said: With the unanimous agreement of the scholars, it is not legislatively prescribed to undertake a journey to any mosque other than these three. Even Qubāʾ Mosque falls under this rule: it is commendable to visit it from a nearby place such as Medina, but “tightening the saddles” for it is not prescribed. Al-Bukhārī (1193) and Muslim (1399) report from Ibn ʿUmar: “The Prophet ﷺ used to go to Qubāʾ Mosque every Saturday, walking or riding, and Ibn ʿUmar would do the same.” In another wording of Muslim: “and he would pray two rakʿahs there.”
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The Shaykh also said: The scholars concur that visiting the three mosques for prayer and similar acts is recommended. But if someone vows to do so, is he obliged to fulfil the vow? According to Mālik, Aḥmad, and others, he must carry out the vow; however, if he visits a mosque of higher rank, it suffices in place of the lesser one, because of the hadith: “Whoever vows to obey Allah, let him obey Him,” which covers every act of obedience.
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The Shaykh stated: The leading imams agree on the soundness of this hadith—the hadith of the chapter—and on acting upon it. Therefore, if a man vows to pray in, perform retreat in, or travel to a mosque or shrine other than the three, fulfilling that vow is not binding by consensus of the imams. Likewise, no scholar has ever deemed it obligatory to travel to any site apart from the three mosques.
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The hadith explicitly forbids journeying for acts of worship to places other than the three mosques. The sin becomes more severe when the traveler’s aim is a grave, intending to venerate it and exaggerate in honoring its occupant. If he believes that supplicating Allah there is superior, he is an innovator; and if he calls upon the grave’s inhabitant, his action is disbelief.
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The prohibition of traveling to the graves of the righteous and similar locations—other than these three mosques—is the position of the foremost verifying scholars: among them Abū Muḥammad al-Juwaynī, al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn, Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Rajab, and Shaykh Muḥammad b