Allah through prayer, supplication, remembrance, recitation, and similar acts, except the mosques of the Muslims and the sacred sites of Hajj.
As for shrines over graves, whether or not they have been made into mosques; sites associated with particular prophets or righteous people; grottoes, caves, and other such places—these include “the Mount,” where Allah spoke to Moses; “the Cave of Hirāʾ,” where the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to worship before revelation came to him; “the cave” mentioned by Allah in His words, “one of two, when they were in the cave”; the cave on Mount Qāsiyūn in Damascus known as “the Cave of Blood”; and the two sites on its eastern and western sides, one called “the Station of Abraham” and the other “the Station of Jesus.” These and similar places and shrines throughout the east and west are not places to which travel for the purpose of visiting is prescribed. If someone vows to travel to them, he is not obliged to fulfil his vow, by agreement of the leading scholars of the Muslims.
Indeed, it is established in the two Sahīh collections, through the reports of Abū Hurayrah and Abū Saʿīd—and it is also narrated from others—that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“Journeys are not to be undertaken except to three mosques: the Sacred Mosque, al-Aqsā Mosque, and this mosque of mine.”
When the Companions of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, conquered these lands—Greater Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Khurāsān, the Maghreb, and elsewhere—they did not seek out these places or visit them, nor did they deliberately seek to pray or supplicate there. Rather, they were