namely, to pray wherever the time for prayer overtook him. His father, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, used to forbid people from deliberately seeking out those places to pray there, saying:

“Those before you were ruined precisely because of this: they turned the sites associated with their prophets into places of worship. Whoever happens to be there when prayer falls due should pray; otherwise, he should move on.”

Thus ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb instructed them to follow the practice established for them by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, was one of the rightly guided caliphs whose sunnah we have been commanded to follow. The Prophet also specifically commanded us to follow his example and that of Abū Bakr, saying:

“Follow the example of the two who come after me: Abū Bakr and ‘Umar.”

The command to follow their example is of a higher order than the command to follow their sunnah, as has been explained at length elsewhere.

Likewise, Mālik is reported to have disapproved of travelling to Jerusalem, fearing that travelling there would be treated as an established sunnah. He disapproved of this when a fixed time was appointed for people to travel there as a group, like the appointed time for Hajj. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not do this at Qubā, at the graves of the martyrs or those buried in al-Baqī‘, or elsewhere, as he did for Hajj, Friday prayers and the Eids. A distinction must therefore be drawn between these practices.

Although he prayed voluntary prayers in congregation on several occasions—during the night, in the forenoon and at other times—gathering for such voluntary prayer at a fixed time was not made an established sunnah like the five daily prayers, the eclipse prayer, the two Eid prayers and Friday prayer.

As for coming to the grave to offer him salutations of peace, they had no need of this, since they offered him salutations during prayer and when entering and leaving the mosque. Coming to it repeatedly after prayer opens the way to its being made a place of recurring observance and an object of worship.