such conduct, just as the Prophet ﷺ forbade every cause and pretext that leads to it, even when the people involved did not mean to invoke the grave itself or to supplicate through it—so what, then, if they were to do so deliberately? He then said:

“As for making supplication merely because the site contains the grave of a prophet or a righteous person, none of the early generations of the ummah nor its leading scholars ever said that praying there is any better than praying elsewhere. Rather, this practice was invented by some people of the qiblah in imitation of the Christians and other idolaters; its origin lies in the religion of the polytheists, not in the religion of Allah’s sincere servants. The same applies to turning graves into mosques: no one from the predecessors of the ummah or their imams regarded it as commendable, but certain members of the community introduced it in emulation of those whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ cursed among the Jews and the Christians.”

Now that we have finished clarifying which mosques are most virtuous and the rulings connected to them, let us proceed to outline the etiquettes and special rulings that relate to mosques in general. I say:

Because mosques overall are, as mentioned earlier, the most beloved places on earth to Allah Almighty, the Wise Lawgiver has legislated rulings specific to them, unlike any other location. These rulings fall under three headings:

a) Etiquettes
b) Prohibitions
c) Permissible matters

I shall explain them in that sequence: