go to the mosques, even though the one who sets out for that purpose intends only to worship Allah alone. The problem is that this opens the door for people to frequent the place on account of the person in the grave—calling upon him, seeking his intercession, or making supplication at his tomb. For that reason the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade turning that spot into a place of worship for Allah alone, lest it become a means that leads to associating partners with Him.

Whenever an action leads to corruption and carries no outweighing benefit, it is prohibited—just as praying during the three forbidden times was prohibited because of the greater harm involved, namely resembling the idol-worshippers, a resemblance that paves the way to polytheism. There is no overriding benefit in praying at those times, since voluntary prayers can easily be performed at other times.

For this very reason the scholars disagreed about the prayers that have specific causes (1). Many of them allowed such prayers during those times, and this is the stronger of the two opinions, because when a prohibition exists solely to block the means, it is lifted in the face of a superior benefit. Accordingly, performing those causally linked