Moses, the cave of Hirā’, where revelation first came to the Messenger, and the cave of Thawr, mentioned in the Quran in His words:

“When the two were in the cave”

—as well as caves and mountains of lesser standing, as in travelling to Mount Lebanon, the Cave of Blood, and the like. Many people travel to mountains and caves that they believe possess special merit. If travelling to Mount Sinai, where Allah spoke to Moses and which He called the blessed spot and the sacred valley, is not recommended, then there is all the more reason not to travel to other mountains.

When I say “by consensus,” I mean the consensus of the early generations and the imams. The Companions, including Ibn ‘Umar, Abū Sa‘īd, Abū Basrah, and others, understood the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Do not undertake a journey except to three mosques”

to include within the prohibition Mount Sinai, where Allah spoke to Moses and which He called the sacred valley and the blessed spot. They forbade people to travel there and did not restrict the prohibition to mosques. Accordingly, no one held that a vow makes such a journey obligatory. I know of no early disagreement concerning this, nor have I seen anyone explicitly state a contrary view except Ibn Hazm al-Zāhirī. Like the majority, he prohibits travelling to a mosque other than the three when one has vowed to do so. Yet if someone vows to travel to a site associated with the prophets, he considers fulfilling that vow obligatory, because he does not accept what an utterance implies or indicates beyond its literal wording. This is one of the two views reported from Dāwūd. Thus, he does not regard His words:

“Do not say to them even ‘ugh’”

as evidence of the prohibition of insulting and reviling