to tomb-shrines. They cited as evidence the report that:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to visit Qubā’ every Saturday, sometimes riding and sometimes walking.”

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim both recorded it in their Sahīh collections. Yet it provides no evidence for their position, because Qubā’ is not a tomb-shrine but a mosque. Moreover, travelling to it is prohibited by agreement of the imams, since this is not a prescribed journey. Indeed, even travelling to Qubā’ from one’s own home would not be permissible. However, if someone travels to the Prophet’s Mosque and then goes from there to Qubā’, this is recommended, just as visiting the graves of those buried in al-Baqī‘ and the martyrs of Uhud is recommended.

As for eating the bread and lentils prepared at “the grave of Abraham, Allah’s intimate friend, peace be upon him,” no scholar, early or later, has recommended this. Nor was such food prepared during the time of the Companions, those who followed them in righteousness, or thereafter, for five hundred years after the beginning of the Prophet’s mission, until the Christians seized that land. The domed structure over his grave was not open; rather, it was sealed shut. Nor did the early generations—the Companions and their successors—travel to his grave or anyone else’s.

When the Christians seized that land, however, they remodelled his burial chamber and turned it into a church. When the Muslims subsequently recaptured the land, some people turned it into a mosque. This is a prohibited innovation, for it is authentically reported in the Sahīh that he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“May Allah curse the Jews and Christians: they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship.”

He was warning against what they had done.

It is also reported in the Sahīh that, five days before his death, he said:

“Indeed, those who came before you used to