A Textual and Documentary Investigation of a Hadith on Pilgrimage

Journey, especially for the sake of pilgrimage, is supposed to be a significant part of religious life. From religious perspective, when your religious and mundane life is in danger, it is not recommended to stay in one place. Almost 30 verses in Quran appreciate world and ego trip and also command people to learn from their travelling experiences and lessons. Furthermore, there are many hadiths about traveling rites, effects, results, and different kinds of traveling. Few hadiths call some types of journey into question the most significant of which being about pilgrimage. The hadith is interpreted in different ways, especially in Sunni sources. According to the appearance of this hadith, “One should take a religious journey to only three mosques”, People may travel only to three mosques (the Sacred Mosque, Prophet’s Mosque and Al-Aqsa Mosque). Some scholars argue that regarding this hadith, people are not allowed to travel to other mosques and places. Examining this hadith and investigating different semantic possibilities and evidences about this hadith, the present study proves the lack of enough evidence for it. Moreover, the consequences of this study confirm that even if there were enough evidences to prove the accuracy of this hadith, it shows the advantage and priority of these three mosques over others instead of rejecting benefits of other journeys.