Section: Innovated Location-Based Festivities
A commendable day may witness, alongside a newly-invented practical celebration, an invented celebration tied to a specific place. This greatly increases the offense and amounts to a departure from the Sacred Law.
Among such practices is what occurs on the Day of ʿArafah—concerning which I know of no scholarly disagreement regarding its prohibition—namely, intentionally visiting the grave of someone held in good repute on that day, gathering in large numbers at his grave, and carrying out taʿrīf there as one does at ʿArafāt. This is a form of concocted Hajj that God has not legislated, a deliberate imitation of the Hajj He has ordained, and an instance of turning graves into festive sites.
Likewise, traveling to Bayt al-Maqdis in order to perform taʿrīf there is manifest error. Visiting Bayt al-Maqdis is in itself a recommended, legitimate act for the purposes of prayer and spiritual retreat; it is one of the three mosques for which travel is specifically sanctioned. However, designating the days of Hajj for such a visit is disapproved, for it assigns a particular time to the visit even though that mosque enjoys no special connection with those days over any others.
Moreover, this practice constitutes an imitation of the pilgrimage to the Sacred Mosque and likens Bayt al-Maqdis to the Kaʿbah. It has led, in fact, to acts that no Muslim doubts form another religion altogether—such as some of the misguided circumambulating the Rock, shaving their heads there, or undertaking ritual observances at that site.