Here in bringing our discussion
to an end, it would be fitting to pause for a while
and make a survey of the tradition quoted in previous
pages, and evaluate the efforts made by Sunni scholars
in explaining and interpreting it and comparing it
with true facts.
It is narrated in Muslim's book of Sahih that the
Prophet said:"My sanctity is in Medina in the
land situated between the mountains of Thawr and 'Ayr
or 'A'ir."(403)
The narrators of this quotation have intended to create
boundaries of sanctity for Medina, as it has been
done for Mecca. But they have erred in choosing Thawr
mountain as a boundary since this mountain is situated
in Mecca. It is the spot where the Prophet went into
hiding in a cave on his emigration from Mecca to Medina
(404) and Medina does not possess a mountain named
Thawr, as it is testified by the following great scholars.
1-Mus'ab az-Zubayri of Medina, who is a great scholar
of that city and died in 236 of the Hijrah, says about
this tradition:
"Thawr mountain is not in Medina."(405)
2-Famous scholar Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Salam, who
died in 224 of the Hijrah, writes: "This is an
Iraqi narration. The people of Medina know of no mountain
in Medina called Thawr. This mountain is in Mecca.
My belief is that the tradition was related to the
mountain of Uhud, which was mistaken for Thawr."(406)
What Abu 'Ubayd means is that the said narration has
been quoted by the people of Iraq who had no knowledge
of Medina and was not aware that Thawr is not a Medinan
