Is there evidence that the greeting of the Sacred Mosque is specifically circumambulation? (And the discussion concerns al-Zayla'i and his book Nasb al-Ra'iyyah, and the meaning of his statement: "It is strange")

The questioner : The first question: Is there evidence that the greeting of the Sacred Mosque is specifically circumambulation?

The Shaykh : There is no authentic Sunnah stating that the Sacred Mosque differs from the other mosques of the world regarding the command to greet it, in the statement of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): or in the other narration . There is no hadith that excludes the Sacred Mosque from this hadith; it is general and comprehensive, as you see. This is the first point. There is a hadith that is a problem, causing many people to assume that the Sacred Mosque is distinguished and differs from the other mosques of the world in that its greeting is circumambulation. It is a hadith mentioned by some Hanafi jurists in their books, which, unfortunately, collect whatever hadiths come to hand. It appears in the book al-Hidayah by one of the famous Hanafi scholars, al-Marghinani, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . Unfortunately, this hadith has spread on the tongues of people and has become a fixed belief in their minds, so they think that every person who enters the Sacred Mosque must begin with circumambulation. This has no basis. Rather, circumambulation is for the non-resident who comes for Hajj or 'Umrah. Circumambulation is for the non-resident, meaning the stranger to Mecca who enters it either as a pilgrim for 'Umrah or as a pilgrim for Hajj. In this case, he must perform circumambulation and then pray two rak'ahs at the Maqam. Thus, the hadith has no basis. Therefore, the one who extracted the book, meaning the book al-Hidayah which cited this hadith attributed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), said: The one who extracted it, al-Hafiz Zayn al-Din al-Zayla'i, is first of the great scholars of hadith, and second, one of the rare scholars of hadith among the Hanafis. I am very sorry that among the Hanafi scholars, few are found who excelled in the science of hadith, whereas in the other schools, there is goodness and blessing. As for this al-Hafiz Zayn al-Din al-Zayla'i, he is one of the rare hadith scholars among the Hanafis. He said, when he extracted this hadith, being polite with the author of al-Hidayah with politeness exceeding the limits of the required etiquette between scholars, where he said: "It is a strange hadith." He should have said, as al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi says about some hadiths in Ihyā' 'Ulūm al-Dīn: "It has no basis." If he wanted to be gentle, he should have adjusted the phrase and said: "I did not find a basis for it." Thus, I see that it was obligatory for al-Hafiz al-Zayla'i to clarify the truth of this hadith by saying at least, using al-'Iraqi's second expression, "I did not find a basis for it." But he said: "Strange." And this statement is itself strange. Why? Because the scholars of hadith have a specific technical term for this particular word. If one of the scholars of hadith, for example, al-Tirmidhi in his Sunan, or al-Isfahani, Abu Nu'aym, in his Hilyah, says in many hadiths: "It is a strange hadith," this word means in the terminology "strange," meaning a single narrator reported it alone. Then the word "strange" in the terminology is divided into two categories: authentic and weak. That is, the word "strangeness" sometimes coincides with authenticity and sometimes differs from it. So if it is said about a hadith that it is only "strange," one should not understand from it that it is authentic or weak, but rather the matter is weighed. As for al-Zayla'i, he came with a specific technical term: "strange" meaning it has no basis. Therefore, I see that this usage contradicts the wisdom saying: "Speak to people according to the capacity of their minds. Do you want Allah and His Messenger to be lied about?" In summary, the greeting of the Sacred Mosque is two rak'ahs, except for one who comes as a pilgrim for 'Umrah or Hajj, in which case circumambulation is mandatory, followed by two rak'ahs at the Maqam. Yes.