Place (makan) in the law

Makan is, in the lexicon, a place. Several legal rulings attach to place. ¹

The majority of Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis (in one report) allow prayer with reprehension in a bathhouse, a dung heap, a slaughterhouse, a camel pen, a roadside and a cemetery. The Malikis allow it if impurity is absent. The Hanbalis in the preferred view hold it invalid in these places, citing the hadith that the whole earth is a mosque except the bathhouse and the cemetery. The Malikis dislike it in camel pens and churches. ^{1 2}

Most Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis hold grasping the right hand over the left a sunna; the Malikis recommend letting the hands hang. The place for grasping is on the chest for the Malikis and Shafi'is and below the navel for the Hanafis and, in one report, the Hanbalis. A Hanafi woman places her hands on her breasts. ³

The jurists agree that a cemetery is the best place of burial, and burial in a mosque built for prayer is disliked. A bare contract of sale requires delivery where the item lies at the contract; a stated place of delivery must be kept. ^{3 4}

Most jurists hold that a borrower who takes a mount to one place and goes beyond it, and it then dies, must pay its value, since the loan is bound by place and time. He is not liable if a stronger person takes it from him by force. ⁴

The jurists agree that places differ in merit. Most hold Makka and Madina the best places on earth; the Hanafis, Hanbalis, some Shafi'is and some Malikis hold Makka the greater, while the Malikis in the settled view and some Shafi'is hold Madina the greater. ⁵