—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—or to al-Masjid al-Aqsā for prayer or a devotional retreat, he is obliged to fulfil this vow according to Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī in one of his two opinions, and Ahmad. According to Abū Hanīfah, however, he is not obliged to do so, because, in his view, a vow creates an obligation only when the act belongs to a category already made obligatory by Islamic law.

The majority, however, hold that a vow to perform any act of obedience must be fulfilled, as established in Sahīh al-Bukhārī, where ‘Ā’ishah reported that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“Whoever vows to obey Allah, let him obey Him; and whoever vows to disobey Allah, let him not disobey Him.”

Travelling to these two mosques is an act of obedience; hence a vow to do so must be fulfilled. As for travelling to any place other than the three mosques, no scholar has held that such a journey becomes obligatory through a vow. Indeed, the scholars explicitly stated that one should not travel to the Mosque of Qubā’, because it is not one of the three, even though visiting the Mosque of Qubā’ is recommended for someone already in Medina. That does not involve undertaking a journey, as stated in the authentic hadith:

“Whoever purifies himself at home, then comes to the Mosque of Qubā’ intending only to pray there, it is equivalent to an ‘umrah.”

—In the margin: This hadith was narrated by the compilers of the Sunan collections, such as al-Nasā’ī, Ibn Mājah and al-Tirmidhī, who graded it good.

He said:

They also said: Moreover, travelling to visit the graves of the prophets and the righteous is an innovation that none of the Companions or their successors practised. The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—did not command it, nor did any of the imams of the Muslims deem it recommended. Whoever regards this as an act of worship and performs it is acting contrary to the Sunnah and the consensus of the imams. This is among the innovations contrary to the Sunnah that Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Battah mentioned in al-Ibānah al-Sughrā.