Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) disagreed with al-Nawawī. In his typical, firm reasoning he stated that the extensions built onto the Prophet’s Mosque enjoy exactly the same status as the original structure. He wrote:
“Reports have come down indicating that every addition to his mosque carries the same ruling as the original: a single prayer there is multiplied by one thousand. The same is true of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca—the extensions are treated as part of it, and circumambulation (ṭawāf) may be performed there, for ṭawāf is valid only inside the mosque, never outside it. Because of this, the Companions unanimously prayed in the first rows of the area that ʿUmar—and after him ʿUthmān—added, and Muslims everywhere have continued to do so. Had those extensions not shared the ruling of the Prophet’s Mosque, their prayers would have been performed outside it, and neither the Companions nor the generations after them would have persisted in leaving the mosque proper for another place or urged others to do so.
Abū Zayd—ʿUmar b. Shabbah al-Numayrī—in his work Akhbār al-Madīnah, says: ‘Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā narrated to me; a trustworthy person narrated to him that ʿUmar enlarged the mosque on the qiblah side up to the spot where the maqṣūrah (screened enclosure) now stands. The people of our city are certain that ʿUthmān fixed the qiblah line at its present position, and it has never been altered since.’
Abū Zayd also said: ‘Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā narrated to me, from Muḥammad, from ʿUthmān (or, perhaps, from Muḥammad b. ʿUthmān), from Muṣʿab b. Thābit, from Khabbāb, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), while standing in his place of prayer one day, remarked, “If only we could increase the size of our mosque,” and he gestured with his hand toward the qiblah.’
Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā further narrated to us, from Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl, from Ibn Abī Dhʿīb, that ʿUmar said: ‘If the Prophet’s Mosque were extended all the way to Dhū al-Ḥulayfah, it would still be part of it.’
And Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā narrated to us, from Saʿd b. Saʿīd, from his brother, from his father