that has been widely accepted. The scholars unanimously agree on its authenticity and have accepted it as true.

Muslim scholars agree that travelling to Jerusalem for the acts of worship prescribed there is recommended, such as prayer, supplication, remembrance of Allah, recitation of the Quran, and devotional retreat. Al-Hākim relates in his Sahīh:

“Solomon, peace be upon him, asked his Lord for three things: a kingdom such as no one after him would possess; judgment that accords with His judgment; and that anyone who came to this House intending nothing other than to pray there should be forgiven.”

For this reason, Ibn ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, would go there and pray without even drinking water there, so that Solomon’s supplication might apply to him, because of the words, “intending nothing other than to pray there.” This requires that one’s intention in travelling there be devoted solely to worship, without going there for a worldly purpose or a religious innovation.

The scholars differed concerning someone who vows to travel there to pray or undertake a devotional retreat: must he fulfil his vow? There are two well-known opinions, both of which are reported from al-Shāfiʿī.

The first is that this vow must be fulfilled. This is the opinion of the majority, including Mālik, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and others.

The second is that it need not be fulfilled. This is the opinion of Abū Hanīfah, whose governing principle is that only an act of a kind prescribed as obligatory by Islamic law can become binding through a vow. For this reason, he regards as binding vows to perform