holding firmly to the law of their Prophet, maintaining the mosques concerning which Allah said:

“Who is more unjust than those who prevent Allah’s name from being mentioned in His mosques?”

And He said:

“Allah’s mosques are maintained only by those who believe in Allah and the Last Day, establish prayer, give zakāh, and fear none but Allah.”

And He, the Exalted, said:

“Say, ‘My Lord has commanded justice.’ And direct your faces to Him at every place of worship.”

And He, the Exalted, said:

“The mosques belong to Allah, so do not invoke anyone alongside Allah.”

There are other texts of this kind.

In the two Sahīh collections, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is reported to have said:

“A man’s prayer in the mosque surpasses his prayer at home or in the marketplace by twenty-five degrees. That is because, when a man performs ablution thoroughly and then comes to the mosque, prompted by nothing but prayer there, one of his two steps raises him a degree and the other removes a sin. When he sits awaiting prayer, he is counted as being in prayer for as long as he awaits it. When he has finished praying, the angels continue to pray for him as long as he remains in his place of prayer, saying, ‘O Allah, forgive him. O Allah, have mercy on him.’”

The later scholars differed concerning someone who travels to visit a prophet’s grave or other such shrines. Those among them who critically examined the matter held that this is a journey undertaken in disobedience to Allah, during which he is not to shorten his prayers, just as he is not to shorten them on any journey undertaken in disobedience to Allah. This was stated by Ibn ʿAqīl and others. Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Battah likewise stated that this is among the innovations introduced into Islam.

Indeed, deliberately seeking out these places to pray and supplicate there has no basis in Islamic law. Nor has it been transmitted from the earliest forerunners—may Allah be pleased