his mosque, where they perform acts that are prescribed for them or disapproved. Travel to his mosque, being prescribed, is unanimously regarded as an act of obedience to Allah and a means of drawing near to Him. It is this on which the Muslims are unanimous. The respondent has stated in many places that this journey is recommended, and that its recommendation is established by scriptural evidence and consensus. He has also stated this in the present answer, explaining what is established by scriptural evidence and consensus concerning travel to his mosque and visiting him in the manner prescribed by the Sharia. He has also explained what is not prescribed concerning travel to visit the graves of others among the prophets and the righteous. For travelling to those places is not travelling to a mosque to which travel has been prescribed. Indeed, even if the mosques there are ones whose construction and use for prayer are prescribed—such as the Muslims’ congregational mosques in their cities—travelling to them is neither a means of drawing near to Allah nor an act of obedience, according to either the four imams or the Muslim imams generally.

All agree that travelling to them falls within his saying:

“No journey is to be undertaken except to three mosques.”

This is an exceptive construction in which the general term is left unstated. There are two possible ways of supplying it.

The first is to understand it as: “No journey is to be undertaken” to any mosque “except the three mosques.” Its explicit wording would thus prohibit journeys to other mosques, while its implication, its purport, and a fortiori reasoning would prohibit journeys to all other places believed to possess special merit. For, according to scriptural evidence and consensus, mosques and worship within them are dearer to Allah than worship in those places. If, then, journeys to places of greater merit have been prohibited, journeys to places of lesser merit