only good in building it.

Allah, Exalted is He, says:

“Yet Allah bears witness that they are indeed liars.”

Then Allah said to His Messenger:

“Do not ever stand in it.”

Thus He forbade him to stand in that mosque lest his presence lend it legitimacy. Instead, He commanded and encouraged him to stand in the mosque that was founded upon piety from the very first day—namely, the Mosque of Qubā’, as the flow of the verses and the ḥadiths praising the purity of its people clearly indicate. What is authentically reported in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim to the effect that the Prophet’s own mosque was also founded upon piety does not contradict this, for if the Mosque of Qubā’ was built on God-fearing devotion from the first day, then the Prophet’s Mosque is even more deserving of that description and surpasses it in virtue. We have discussed this issue at length in our Tafsīr, praise be to Allah.

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ halted at Dhī Awān, he summoned Mālik ibn al-Dukhshum and Maʿn ibn ʿAdī—or his brother ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAdī—may Allah be pleased with them, and ordered them to go to that mosque whose builders had wronged themselves and burn it down. They went, set it aflame, and its people dispersed.

Ibn Isḥāq relates that the men who had erected it were twelve in number: Khidhām ibn Khālid—next to whose house the structure stood; Thaʿlabah ibn Ḥāṭib; Muʿattib ibn Qushayr; Abū Ḥubaybah ibn al-Azʿar; ʿAbbād ibn Ḥanīf, the brother of Sahl ibn Ḥanīf; Jāriyah ibn ʿĀmir and his two sons Mujammaʿ and Zayd; Nabtal ibn al-Ḥārith; Bahzaj, of the Banū Ḍubayʿah; Bijād ibn ʿUthmān, also of the Banū Ḍubayʿah; and Wadiʿah ibn Thābit, of the Banū Umayyah.

I add: During this very expedition to Tabūk, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed the dawn prayer behind ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, joining him in the second rakʿah. The Prophet had gone to make ablution with al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, and his delay caused the congregation to begin; so ʿAbd al-Raḥmān stepped forward to lead them. When the prayer was concluded, the people were alarmed at what had happened, but the Prophet ﷺ said to them, “You did well, and you were right.” Al-Bukhārī has narrated this report.

Al-Bukhārī also records, through Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl, and Anas ibn Mālik —may Allah be pleased with him— that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned from Tabūk and drew near to Madinah he said: “In Madinah there are people who, whenever you traveled a road or crossed a valley, were with you.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, even though they are in Madinah?” He replied, “Even though they are in Madinah; they were held back by a valid excuse.” Al-Bukhārī alone transmits this wording through this chain.