Ibn al-Qayyim said in Zad al-Maʿad:

“The Prophet’s purpose was to manifest the rites of Islam in the place where they had manifested the rites of disbelief and enmity toward Allah and His Messenger. This was his customary practice, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him: to establish the rite of the oneness of God in places where the rites of disbelief and associationism had been observed. Thus, he ordered that the mosque of al-Ta’if be built on the site of al-Lat and al-ʿUzza.”

As for Muslim’s report from Aishah that staying at al-Abtah is not a sunnah, and from Ibn Abbas that it is of no significance, the verifying scholars have answered this in two ways. First, an affirmative report takes precedence over a negative one. Second, there is no contradiction between them: the one negating it meant that it is not among the rites of Hajj, such that nothing is entailed by omitting it; while the one affirming it meant that it falls under the general instruction to emulate his actions, peace and blessings be upon him, not that it is obligatory.

Al-Hafiz then said (3/471): “It is recommended to perform the noon, afternoon, sunset, and night prayers there, and to spend part of the night there, as indicated by the hadiths of Anas and Ibn Umar.” I say: Both are found in my Abridgement of Sahih al-Bukhari (Book of Hajj, chapters 83 and 148).

Al-Abtah means the valley-bed of Mecca; its plural is al-Bitah and al-Abatih. Hence the expression Quraysh al-Bitah: those who dwelt in the valley-beds and gravelly plain of Mecca. Al-Nihayah.

Tahsib means staying at al-Muhassab, the mountain pass whose outlet leads to al-Abtah, between Mecca and Mina. It is also Khayf Banu Kinana.