his mosque. Such travel therefore falls outside the scope of the answer to the question, for the answer concerned only those who travel solely to visit their graves. Someone knowledgeable about Islamic law would not do this: he knows that the Messenger recommended travelling to his mosque and praying there, and he is himself travelling to that mosque. How, then, could he not intend to travel there? Anyone who knowingly acts of his own free choice must necessarily intend what he does. Such an intention can be absent only through ignorance: either ignorance that travelling to his mosque is recommended because it is his mosque, not because of the grave, or ignorance that the traveller’s destination is in fact his mosque. But if he knows both these things, he must necessarily intend to travel to his mosque. Thus, visiting his grave differs in its rulings from visiting other graves in several respects, as has been explained at length elsewhere.

People of ignorance and misguidance, however, treat travelling to visit him like their customary journeys to visit the grave of someone they venerate. They travel there to invoke him, supplicate at his grave, go in to his grave, and sit beside it. A mosque may have been built over or beside the grave for its sake, and they pray in that mosque out of veneration for the person buried there. This is among the practices for which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, cursed the People of the Book and which he forbade his community to follow. During his final illness, he said:

“May Allah curse the Jews and Christians; they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship.”

This is reported in both Sahīh collections through several routes of transmission. Five days before his death, he said:

“Those who came before you used to take the graves of their prophets and righteous people as places of worship. Beware! Do not take graves as places of worship, for I forbid you