such benefit in seeing it. Rather, the misguided take graves as idols, just as the Jews and Christians used to take the graves of prophets and righteous people as mosques. Through the blessing of Muhammad’s mission, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, Allah has made known accounts of them and their lives that must be believed and that benefit His servants. He has abolished the practices that harm people: associating them as partners with Allah and taking their graves as mosques, as people before us used to do.

In the time of the Companions, no prophet’s grave was openly known and visited, whether people travelled to it or not—neither Abraham’s grave nor any other. When “Daniel’s grave” was discovered at Tustar, and people were seeking rain through him, Abū Mūsā al-Ash‘arī wrote about it to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb. ‘Umar wrote back, ordering him to dig thirteen graves during the day, bury him in one of them at night, and erase the traces of all the graves, lest people be led astray through him. This has been mentioned by several people.

Among those who narrated it was Yūnus ibn Bakr, in Additions to Ibn Ishāq’s Military Expeditions, from Abū Khalda Khālid ibn Dīnār, who related:

Abū al-‘Āliya narrated to us, saying: “When we conquered Tustar, we found in al-Hurmuzān’s treasury a bier bearing a dead man, with a manuscript of scripture belonging to him beside his head. We took the manuscript and carried it to ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb. He summoned Ka‘b to deal with it, and Ka‘b transcribed it in Arabic. I was the first Arab to read it; I read it just as I read this Quran.”

I asked Abū al-‘Āliya, “What did it contain?”

He replied, “Your ways of life, your affairs, the forms of your speech, and what is yet to come.”