that is recommended. In several of my works on the rites of Hajj, I have explained the Sunnah concerning this: how one should greet him, and whether one should face the chamber or the direction of prayer. There are two views on this. Most scholars, including Mālik, al-Shāfi'ī and Ahmad, say that one should face the chamber. Abū Hanīfa says that one should face the direction of prayer, with the chamber to one’s left according to one account of his view, or behind one according to another.

For when the honoured chamber was outside the mosque and the Companions would greet him, no one could face him—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—with their back to the direction of prayer, as became possible after the chamber was incorporated into the mosque. Rather, if a person faced the direction of prayer, the chamber would be to his left. Thus, if they used to face him with their backs to the west, the majority’s view is stronger. But if they used to face the direction of prayer with the chamber to their left, Abū Hanīfa’s view is stronger.

Prayers may be shortened on this recommended journey, by agreement of the leading Muslim scholars. No leading Muslim scholar has said that prayers may not be shortened on this journey. Nor has any of them forbidden travelling to his mosque, even when the traveller also visits his grave—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Rather, this is among the finest righteous deeds. Nothing in my words or those of others prohibits this, or prohibits the prescribed manner of visiting the graves of the prophets and the righteous, or the prescribed manner of visiting other graves. Indeed, I have stated in several places that visiting graves is recommended, just as “the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to visit those buried in al-Baqī' and the martyrs of Uhud, and teach his Companions