by devotional retreat is worship, prayer, recitation, remembrance of Allah, and supplication.

As for the consensus some have claimed that a particular grave is superior to all mosques, this is a claim newly introduced into Islam. It is not known to have been held by any of the early generations. Rather, one of the later scholars mentioned it, and another took it from him and supposed it to be a consensus, on the grounds that the bodies of the prophets themselves are superior to mosques. Yet their argument applies to all believers: their bodies are superior to any earth in the world. The superiority of their bodies does not entail that their dwellings, whether in life or in death, are superior. Indeed, it is self-evident from their religion that their mosques are superior to their dwellings.

Some may appeal to the report:

“Every newborn is sprinkled with some earth from his burial pit.”

Thus, they argue, he was created from the earth of his grave. This argument is invalid for two reasons.

The first is that this is not established, and all the reports concerning it are weak. It is known with certainty that no earth has been sprinkled over the fetus in its mother’s womb. Rather, it was Adam himself who was created from earth; his descendants were then created from an extract of a lowly fluid. It is also known that no portion of that earth is distinguishable as belonging to one person, and another portion to someone else. For when it was transformed into a living body, as the spirit was breathed into Adam, it no longer remained earth. A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.