Is the Prayer in the other Mosques of Makkah rewarded with 100,000 reward just like Al-Masjid Al-Harām? Shaikh Rabee’ Ibn Hādi Al-Madkhali

Question: Is the Prayer in the Masjid of this locality* [of Makkah] reward 100,000 times just like Prayer at Al-Masjid Al-Harām? And what is the evidence for that?

Answer: This matter is something differed-over. Some scholars concluded that this reward of 100,000 prayers is specific for Al-Masjid Al-Kaʿbah, while other scholars held that all the Haram area [of Makkah] is considered as Al-Masjid Al-Harām, therefore Prayer in any other Masjid within the Haram limits is like praying at Al-Masjid Al-Harām [at the Kaʿbah].

However, this does not seem correct, and I have my reservations. If it was the case that the whole of the Haram area was a Masjid, then how is it allowed to buy and sell in it? How is it allowed to sell land and real estate? How is it allowed to establish markets while the area is a Masjid? How is it possible to make permissible marital relations, and janābah, to relieve oneself therein, and women who menstruate therein and so on?!

What is most correct, therefore, is that this reward [of 100,000 Prayers] is only for the Sacred Mosque [at the Kaʿbah]. On an occasion, I debated a man over this issue, so I said to him that Allah’s Messenger (salallāhu ʿalaihi wasallam) said: “Do not embark upon a journey except to three Mosques: Al-Masjid Al-Harām, this Masjid of mine and Masjid Al-Aqsā.” (Al-Bukhāri, no. 1189, Muslim, no. 1397 from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him). So, if a person embarks on a journey, and he arrives in Makkah and then prays in any Masjid other than the Al-Masjid Al-Harām (Masjid Al-Kaʿbah), has he fulfilled the purpose of journeying to Al-Masjid Al-Harām [as is stated in the hadeeth]? So, he was not able to answer.

So, strive to pray at Al-Masjid Al-Harām because that is the safest view of the scholars with complete agreement – and the reward of the Prayer will not escape you, inshā’-Allāh, so long as you are sincere to Allah. As for the Mosques other than Al-Masjid Al-Harām (meaning Masjid Al-Kaʿbah), then there is differing among the scholars – and what is more correct in my view is that the reward [of 100,000] is specific for the Masjid Al-Kaʿbah as is reported in the authentic texts regarding Masjid Al-Kaʿbah.

(Ref: Majmooʿ Kutub was Rasā’il wa Fatāwā Fadeelah ash-Shaikh al-ʿAllāmah Rabeeʿ Ibn Hādi ʿUmayr al-Madkhali, 15/284-285)

*The locality being referred to in the question is Al-ʿAwāli in Makkah where Shaikh Rabeeʿ lived for many years. It is behind Mount Thawr, to the south-east.