—the Prophet’s grave, for example, citing his statement (1): “Whoever visits me after my death, it is as though he visited me during my life,” related by al-Daraqutni (2).
As for the phrase that some people (3) circulate—“Whoever performs Hajj and does not visit me has shunned me” (4)—none of the hadith scholars has ever transmitted it. It stands on the same footing as the saying, “Whoever visits me and my father (5) in the same year, I guarantee Paradise for him from Allah” (6).
This likewise is spurious (7) by consensus of the scholars: no one has reported it, nor has anyone relied on it. The only text some of them cite is the hadith of al-Daraqutni (8).
Even so, Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi (9) used that Daraqutni report to argue for the permissibility of traveling to visit graves—
(1) The base manuscript reads li-qawlihi (“because of his statement”).
(2) Cited in 2/278 through the hadith of Hatib. Shaykh al-Islam remarked, “It is weak by unanimous agreement of the scholars” (Iqtidha, 2/296). MSS B and M add, “and Ibn Majah,” but I have not located it in Ibn Majah.
(3) MSS F and K read dhakarahu (“he mentioned it”).
(4) Ibn Hibban recorded it in al-Majruhin, 3/73, under the biography of al-Nu‘man ibn Shibl, commenting, “He transmits absurdities from trustworthy narrators and inversions from reliable ones.” Al-Dhahabi stated in al-Mizan, 4/265: “This is fabricated.”
(5) MSS K and T have “Abi Ibrahim,” and this is also the form found in the sources that cite the hadith.
(6) I have not found it with an isnad; when al-Nawawi was asked about it he replied, “It is baseless and fabricated.” Shaykh al-Islam said the same. See Tadhkirat al-Mawdu‘at, p. 76; Tanzih al-Shari‘a, 2/213.
(7) Omitted in MSS F, K, and T.
(8) After it, MSS F, K, and T add: wa-nahwuhu (“and the like”).
(9) The reference is to Imam Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi; see his al-Mughni, 3/117–118.