and their lives are greater in rank in Allah’s sight, and it is they who will triumph.”

“Their Lord gives them glad tidings of mercy from Him, His good pleasure, and gardens where lasting bliss awaits them.”

“They will remain there forever. Indeed, with Allah is a tremendous reward.”

This, then, is the basis for holding these places in esteem. Some of them were subsequently inhabited by disbelievers and people of religious innovation and wickedness. Others fell into ruin, and places other than these became frontier strongholds. The rulings applying to places change as the circumstances of their inhabitants change. A place may be an abode of unbelief when its inhabitants are disbelievers, then become an abode of Islam when they embrace Islam. Thus Mecca—may Allah ennoble it—was initially an abode of unbelief and war. Allah said of it:

“How many a town was mightier than your town which drove you out!”

Then, when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, conquered it, it became an abode of Islam, although in itself it is the Mother of Towns and the land most beloved to Allah. Likewise, the Holy Land was inhabited by the mighty people whom Allah Most High mentioned. As He Most High said:

“And when Moses said to his people, ‘O my people, remember Allah’s favor upon you when He raised prophets among you, made you kings, and gave you what He had not given anyone else in all the worlds.’”

“‘O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you, and do not turn back, lest you become losers.’”

“They said, ‘O Moses, there are mighty people in it. We will never enter it until they leave. If they leave, then we will enter.’”

And the verses that follow. Allah Most High also said, when He saved Moses and his people from drowning:

“I will show you the abode of the defiantly disobedient.”

Those lands were the lands of