the devoted servant’s entry into a garden of Paradise. Yet this explanation is debatable, since nothing confines such a reward to that precise spot, while the report itself is intended to highlight the superior honor of that location over all others. Others have said that the statement contains an unexpressed particle of comparison, meaning: it is like a garden, because the angels and the believing humans and jinn who sit there engage abundantly in remembrance and every other form of worship. So it is stated in Fatḥ al-Bārī (11/401–402).

A further question arises: does the term “house” refer to all the dwellings that belonged to his wives—peace be upon them—or to only one of them, namely ʿĀʾishah’s chamber in which his grave now lies? The latter appears to be correct, and this is supported by the fact that the early transmitters rendered the wording as “my grave” instead of “my house,” as cited earlier—clear proof that the “house” intended is the one containing his grave. Al-Ḥāfiẓ in Fatḥ al-Bārī inclined to this same conclusion, for after declaring Ibn ʿAsākir’s version erroneous he wrote:

“Yes, the wording ‘the grave’ does occur in the report of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ recorded by al-Bazzār with a chain whose narrators are all trustworthy, and in the narration of Ibn ʿUmar cited by al-Ṭabarānī. Accordingly, the ‘house’ in his words ‘my house’ refers to one particular dwelling, not all of them—namely ʿĀʾishah’s chamber where he was later buried. The ḥadith has also reached us in the form: ‘Between the pulpit and the house of ʿĀʾishah is a garden among the gardens of Paradise,’ reported by al-Ṭabarānī in al-Awsat.”

I add: that wording is transmitted from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, and al-Haythamī graded it “fair,” as mentioned earlier. Allah, exalted is He, knows best.

(It is the mosque that was founded on God-fearingness, like the mosque of Qubāʾ. Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī said:)