Qutaybah narrated from al-Layth, from ʿImrān ibn Abī Anas, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Saʿīd, from his father, who said: Two men once disputed about “the mosque founded on piety,” and he recounted the incident in words similar to those cited above.

Muslim relates (1)—through the chain of Ḥumayd al-Kharrāṭ from Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—that Abū Salamah asked ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Saʿīd, “How did you hear your father speak about the mosque founded on piety?” He replied, “My father said: I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and inquired about the mosque founded on piety. He scooped up a handful of pebbles, struck them against the ground, and then said, ‘It is this mosque of yours.’ ”

Imām Aḥmad also said (2): Wakiʿ narrated to us; Rabīʿah ibn ʿUthmān al-Taymī (3) narrated to us; from ʿImrān ibn Abī Anas; from Sahl ibn Saʿd, who said: Two men during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ differed about the mosque founded on piety. One asserted that it was the Mosque of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while the other claimed it was the mosque of Qubāʾ. They went to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and asked him. He answered, “It is this mosque of mine.”

Imām Aḥmad further said (4): Abū Naʿīm narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĀmir al-Aslamī narrated to us; from ʿImrān ibn Abī Anas; from Sahl ibn Saʿd; from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The mosque founded on piety is this mosque of mine.”

These multiple chains together verge on establishing certainty that the mosque intended is the Prophet’s Mosque ﷺ. This was the position of ʿUmar, his son ʿAbd Allāh, Zayd ibn Thābit, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, and was adopted by Ibn Jarīr.

Others have said that there is no contradiction between the verse’s initial revelation concerning the mosque at Qubāʾ, as explained earlier, and these ḥadīths; for the Prophet’s Mosque is even more deserving of the description. Indeed, it is one of the three mosques for which travel is lawfully undertaken, as is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (5) from Abū Hurayrah, who reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Saddles are not tightened for travel except to three mosques: this mosque of mine, the Sacred Mosque, and the Mosque of Jerusalem.”

Muslim likewise records (6) from Abū Saʿīd that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Journeys are not undertaken except to three mosques,” and he mentioned those three.