a man in Cairo who reportedly said, “It is the grave of a Christian.”

Likewise, on the eastern side of Damascus there is a shrine said to be the grave of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb. The scholars agree that Ubayy never came to Damascus; rather, he died in Medina. Some people therefore used to say, “It is the grave of a Christian.” This is not implausible, for the Jews and Christians were the first to venerate graves and shrines. Hence the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said in the hadith recorded by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim:

“May Allah curse the Jews and Christians: they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship.”

He was warning against what they had done.

Christians go to greater extremes in this than Jews, as related in Sahīh al-Bukhārī and Sahīh Muslim on the authority of ʿĀ’ishah:

“Umm Habībah and Umm Salamah, may Allah be pleased with them both, mentioned to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, a church in Abyssinia, describing its beauty and the images inside it. He said, ‘When a righteous man among those people died, they would build a place of worship over his grave and make those images within it. Those are the worst of creation in Allah’s sight on the Day of Resurrection.’”

Christians often venerate the relics of their saints. It is therefore not implausible that they suggested to some ignorant Muslims that this was the grave of someone whom Muslims venerate, so that they would join them in venerating it. How could this be unlikely, when they have already led astray many of