so devotional retreat may be observed only in mosques, by scholarly agreement, as Allah Most High says:

“And do not have relations with them as long as you are staying for worship in the mosques.”

Devotional retreat, whether in seclusion or otherwise, is not to be observed in a cave, at a grave, or at any other place to which misguided people deliberately travel and where they remain in devotion, just as the polytheists remain devoted to their idols.

Abraham, Allah’s intimate friend, said:

“What are these statues to which you are devoted?”

And Allah Most High says:

“We took the Children of Israel across the sea, and they came upon a people devoted to their idols. They said, ‘O Moses, make for us a god just as they have gods.’ He said, ‘You are indeed an ignorant people.’”

“What these people are engaged in is doomed to destruction, and all that they have been doing is in vain.”

A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.

It is authentically reported that Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyib said:

“Whoever vows to observe devotional retreat in the mosque of Jerusalem, then observes it in the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has fulfilled his vow. Whoever vows to observe devotional retreat in the mosque of Medina, then observes it in the Sacred Mosque, has fulfilled his vow. Whoever vows to observe devotional retreat on mountaintops should not do so; rather, let him observe it in a congregational mosque.”

The general body of scholars agrees on the prohibition stated by Sa‘īd. Even supposing that a person does not call this devotional retreat, anyone who does outside a mosque what someone observing devotional retreat does inside one is observing devotional retreat outside a mosque, and this is prohibited by scholarly agreement. A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.

The point here is that travelling to places other than the three mosques, whether a grave or a site associated with