the mosque, he is rewarded for it. The word qadhāh refers to a tiny particle; when a person removes even that small speck from the mosque, he earns a reward.

In the ḥadith of ʿĀʾishah, Allah be pleased with her, the Prophet ﷺ instructed that mosques be built within the residential quarters, and that they be kept clean and perfumed. Mosques are the houses of Allah, and therefore they merit care and regular cleaning. They should not, however, be lavishly ornamented or embellished in a manner that distracts the worshippers, for the Prophet ﷺ said, “You will most certainly adorn them—meaning the mosques—just as the Jews and Christians adorned theirs.”

Another lesson drawn from this ḥadith is that the Prophet ﷺ does not possess knowledge of the unseen. Hence his words: “Show me her grave.” If he did not know of a tangible matter such as the location of her grave, then all the more so he does not know the unseen. Allah said to him: “Say, ‘I do not tell you that I possess the treasuries of Allah, nor do I know the unseen; nor do I say to you that I am an angel. I only follow what is revealed to me.’” (al-Anʿām 6:50) And He also said: “Say, ‘I have no power to benefit or harm myself except as Allah wills. If I had knowledge of the unseen, I would have amassed much good and no harm would have touched me. I am only a warner and a bearer of glad tidings to people who believe.’” (al-Aʿrāf 7:188)

A further benefit is the legitimacy of offering the funeral prayer at the grave when it was not performed before burial. The Prophet ﷺ went out and prayed over her grave because the prayer had not been offered prior to her burial. This, however, applies only to someone who dies during your lifetime and in your era; as for one who passed away