and that of others lie in the ḥijr of the Sacred Mosque—the most eminent mosque to which people aspire for prayer—the response is as follows:

There is no doubt that the Sacred Mosque is the most virtuous of all mosques, and a single prayer performed there equals one hundred thousand prayers elsewhere (1). Yet this merit has been intrinsic to it ever since Abraham, together with his son Ishmael, raised its foundations; it did not come about through Ishmael’s burial there, even if—hypothetically—he were actually interred in it. Whoever claims otherwise has gone far astray, asserting something that none of the righteous predecessors ever said and for which no hadith of probative strength exists.

If it is objected: “We concede what you have mentioned, and Ishmael’s burial there does not contradict it; but does this not, at the very least, show that praying in a mosque containing a grave is not disliked?”

The answer is: By no means—absolutely not. The clarification is as follows, point by point: