Sayyiduna Abu Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that I asked, "O Messenger of Allah, which mosque was built first on the earth?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: "Al-Masjid al-Haram." I asked, "Then which was built after that?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: "Al-Masjid al-Aqsa." I asked, "What was the time span between the two?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: "Forty years. Then, wherever you may be when the time for prayer comes, perform the prayer there, for that is a mosque." This is the hadith of Abu Mu'awiyah (all the teachers of the Imam have narrated the hadith with the same meaning). Imam Abu Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him) says that the hadiths of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) stating, "The whole earth has been made a mosque and a means of purification for us," are related to this chapter.

Sayyiduna Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) arrived in (Madina Munawwarah), wherever the time for prayer occurred, he (peace be upon him) would pray there. Therefore, he (peace be upon him) would pray in the sheep enclosures. Then he (peace be upon him) ordered the building of a mosque. He says that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent a message to a group of Banu Najjar (to call them), so they came. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "O Banu Najjar, sell me this garden of yours for a price." They replied, "By Allah, we seek its price only from Allah, the Exalted." Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) says that there were graves of polytheists in that garden, and there was a ruin and some date-palm trees. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) ordered that the graves be dug up and leveled, the ruin be evened out, and the date-palm trees be cut down. The noble Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) placed the trunks of the date-palms in the direction of the qiblah of the mosque, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "Make both sides of the door out of stone."

And the evidence that the one who does that is among the worst of people, and in this wording there is an indication that his, peace and blessings be upon him, saying: «أَيْنَ مَا أَدْرَكَتْكَ الصَّلَاةُ فَصَلِّ فَهُوَ مَسْجِدٌ» and his saying: «جُعِلَتْ لَنَا الْأَرْضُ كُلُّهَا مَسْجِدًا» is a general wording whose intended meaning is specific, as I have mentioned. And this is of the type which I have already explained in some of our books, that "all" may refer to "some" in the sense of partiality, for the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not intend by his saying: "The whole earth has been made a mosque for us" all of the lands; rather, he intended some of it, not all of it. For if he had intended all of it, then prayer in graveyards would be permissible, and it would be permissible to take graves as mosques, and prayer in the bathhouse and behind graves and in the camel pens—all of it—would be permissible. And in the Prophet’s, peace and blessings be upon him, forbidding prayer in this place is an indication of the correctness of what I have said.

Sayyiduna Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed, among the worst and most evil of people are those whom the Hour will find alive, and those who take graves as places of prostration."

It is narrated from Sayyidah Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that Sayyidah Umm Salamah and Sayyidah Umm Habibah mentioned a church which they had seen in Abyssinia, and there were pictures in it. Both of them mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), so he said: "They are such people that when a righteous man among them would die, they would build a mosque over his grave, and make these pictures in it. These are the worst of creatures in the sight of Allah."

Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "All of the earth is a mosque except for graveyards and bathhouses."

The Imam has narrated, through his esteemed teacher Bishr bin Mu'adh’s chain of transmission, a narration from Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id (may Allah be pleased with him) similar to the aforementioned narration of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Hazrat Wathilah bin Asqa’ Laithi narrates that I heard Sayyiduna Abu Marthad Ghanawi (may Allah be pleased with him) saying: Do not sit on graves and do not pray facing towards them. Imam Abu Bakr (may Allah have mercy on him) says that in the chain of this hadith, Imam Ibn Mubarak has added the intermediary of Abu Idris Khawlani between Bishr bin Ubaidullah and Wathilah bin Asqa’.

Sayyiduna Abu Marthad Ghanawi (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that I heard a narration similar to this from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates from the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he (peace be upon him) said: "When (you do not find a place to pray) except for sheep enclosures and camel enclosures, then pray in the sheep enclosures and do not pray in the camel enclosures." Muhammad bin Al-Ala states that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Do not pray in camel enclosures and pray in sheep enclosures."