and exaltation,” (1) and anyone who sees the House before entering the Mosque should make the same supplication.
Those who regard the supplication as recommended at the very first sight of the House have maintained that it remains recommended even if that first sight occurs only after one has stepped inside the Mosque (2). Nevertheless, when the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—entered the Mosque (3), he began straightaway with the circumambulation (ṭawāf). He did not perform the two-rakʿah “Greeting of the Mosque” (4) or any other prayer beforehand; indeed, the greeting of the Sacred Mosque is to circle the House itself.
The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to bathe before entering Mecca, and he would spend the night at Dhu Tuwa (5), (6) which is near the wells that today (7) are called the Zāhir Wells (8). So whoever is able to do so
(1) Reported by al-Shafi‘i (p. 125) and al-Bayhaqi (no. 9213) from Ibn Jurayj: whenever the Messenger of Allah, Allah bless him and grant him peace, saw the Ka‘ba he would raise his hands and say: “O Allah, increase this House in honour, veneration, nobility and awe; and increase the honour and nobility of those who honour it, among those who perform hajj or ‘umra, in honour, nobility, veneration and righteousness.” Ibn al-Qayyim remarks in Zad al-Ma‘ad 2/207 that the chain is mursal, but Sa‘id b. al-Musayyab heard this formula from ‘Umar b. al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, who used to recite it.
(2) This is the dominant Hanbali view: on seeing the Ka‘ba one raises his hands and supplicates. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, however, maintains that one should not occupy himself with a special supplication; see al-Insaf 4/4.
(3) The word “the mosque” is missing in manuscript B.
(4) Manuscript D adds: “with the salutation (tahiyya).”
(5) Al-Bukhari (491) and Muslim (1259) transmit from Ibn ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, that “he never entered Makka without spending the night at Dhu Tuwa; he would remain there until morning, bathe, and then enter Makka by day, and he related that the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, did the same.”
(6) Manuscripts C and D include the additional word: “while he.”
(7) The word “today” is absent from manuscripts B, C, and D.
(8) Manuscripts A, B, and D read: “al-zahr.”