so everyone who travels to his honoured grave will inevitably perform an act of obedience and devotion for which he is rewarded by praying in his mosque. As for the intention itself, those knowledgeable about hadith intend to travel to his mosque, although some of them may also intend to travel to the grave if they do not know that this is prohibited. Someone unaware of this may intend only to travel to the grave, but he will inevitably pray in his mosque and be rewarded for doing so. He is not punished for a prohibited act that he committed without knowing it was prohibited. Thus, he receives a reward and bears no sin. This is unlike travelling to anyone else’s grave, where there is nothing to which travel is prescribed. Nevertheless, such a person may perform an act of obedience for which he is rewarded, and be forgiven for what he did not know was forbidden.

Prayer in mosques built over graves is prohibited without exception, unlike prayer in his mosque, where one prayer is worth a thousand prayers. It was founded upon piety, and its sanctity was already established during his lifetime, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the lifetimes of his rightly guided caliphs, before the chamber was incorporated into it. At that time, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, the Emigrants and the Helpers prayed there. Worship there then was of greater excellence and merit than worship there after the chamber was incorporated into it. The chamber was incorporated only after the era of the Companions had ended, during the rule of al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, who assumed power sometime in the eighties AH, as mentioned previously.

Some of them supposed that the exception was due to his being a prophet, so they extended it, saying:

“One may travel