for I forbid you to do so.” And Allah Most High knows best.

These are the respondent’s exact words. Let the reader reflect on what they contain, on what these opponents quoted from the answer in challenging it, and on what they claimed was false. Are they truthful and correct in either respect, or is the opposite the case?

The respondent gave this answer ten-odd years ago, according to the questioner’s circumstances and his request for guidance. He did not discuss the matter at length or name everyone who held each of the two views, but confined himself to what was possible at the time. Otherwise, these two views are found in many works on the schools of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Ahmad, as well as in hadith commentaries and elsewhere.

The view that travelling to any place other than the three mosques is forbidden—even if it is the grave of our Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is the position of Mālik and the majority of his followers, and likewise of most of Ahmad’s followers. They understand the hadith as prohibiting travel to places other than the three mosques. Some of them, however, say that our Prophet’s grave does not fall within its general scope.

There are two grounds for this view. The first is that travelling to his grave is travelling to his mosque. This is the correct basis, and it accords with the position of Mālik and the majority of his followers.

The second basis is that our Prophet is not to be likened to other believers, as stated by