198 – Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “May Allah combat the Jews; they have taken the graves of their prophets as places of prayer.” Agreed upon, and Muslim added: “and the Christians.” ⦗1⦘

Bukhārī and Muslim likewise relate, on the authority of ʿĀʼishah, that “Whenever a righteous man among them died, they would build a mosque over his grave,” and in another wording: “Those are the worst of creation.” ⦗2⦘

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Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• “May Allah combat the Jews” – i.e., may Allah curse them and drive them far from His mercy. In the narration of ʿĀʼishah recorded by al-Bukhārī (435) and Muslim (529) the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians; they have taken the graves of their prophets as places of worship.” Ibn ʿAbbās said: every occurrence of the word qatl (killing) in the Quran denotes a curse. Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said: qātalahum Allah is a comprehensive supplication against every kind of evil, and anyone whom Allah combats is inevitably defeated.
• “Those” (ulaʼiki) – the kāf is pronounced with a kasrah because the addressee is feminine.

Points derived from the ḥadīth
1 – The first narration was uttered by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the context of death. ʿĀʼishah said: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was on his deathbed he said, “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians; they have taken the graves of their prophets as places of worship,” warning against their practice.
2 – The second narration: ʿĀʼishah said that Umm Ḥabībah and Umm Salamah mentioned to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) a church they had seen in Abyssinia that contained images, whereupon he said, “Those people, whenever there was among them…"