and supplicating beside the ʿUthmānic Quran manuscript; and of someone who presses his aching back against the column at the head of Muʿāwiyah’s grave, beside the martyrs’ graves at Bāb al-Saghīr?

Does supplication have any special prospect of acceptance or of being answered swiftly at a particular time or in a particular place—at the grave of a prophet or a righteous friend of Allah? Is it permissible, when supplicating, to seek help from Allah Most High through a prophet sent by Him, an angel brought near to Him, His speech, the Kaʿbah, the supplication known as Ihtiyāt Qāf, or the supplication of Umm Dāwūd or al-Khidr?

Is it permissible, when making a request, to adjure Allah Most High by someone’s right, someone’s sanctity, the standing of those brought near to Him, or those of His creation closest to Him; or to adjure Him by their acts and deeds?

Is it permissible to venerate a place containing perfume, saffron, and a saddle because someone saw the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, there in a dream? Or is it permissible to venerate a tree with rags hanging from it, of which people say, “This tree is blessed; righteous friends of Allah gather around it”?

Is it permissible to venerate a mountain or visit it, or to visit the shrines and relics it contains and supplicate and pray there—for example, the Cave of Blood, Adam’s Cave and the relics, the Cave of Hunger, the graves of Seth, Abel, Noah, Elijah, Ezekiel, Shībāl the Shepherd, and Ibrāhīm ibn Adham in Jibillah, the Crow’s Nest at Baalbek, the Cave of the Forty, and the bath at Tiberias? And what of visiting Ashkelon and the Mosque of Sālih in Acre, which is renowned for the sanctity accorded to it, the veneration shown to it, and the visits paid to it?