Now, if it is said, “Prayer there is forbidden—does it nonetheless remain valid or not?” the well-known position among us is that it is both forbidden and invalid. Whoever reflects on the preceding texts will see beyond any doubt that it is indeed prohibited and that the prayer does not count.
Supplication at Graves
The purpose here is not to rehearse the well-known legal discussions—they are already familiar—but rather to alert the reader to matters that may escape notice. One such matter is intentionally going to graves in order to make supplication at or through them.
Supplication at graves and elsewhere falls into two categories:
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The supplication occurs there incidentally, without any intention of choosing the spot—such as a person who calls upon Allah while walking along his route and happens to pass by graves, or one who visits them, offers salutations, and asks Allah for well-being for himself and the deceased, as prescribed by the Sunnah. This and similar situations are unobjectionable.
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A person deliberately selects the gravesite, believing that supplication offered there is more readily answered than elsewhere. This is prohibited—either strictly forbidden or at the very least strongly discouraged, and it leans closer to outright prohibition. The difference between the two cases is evident: if someone were invoking Allah and, while passing, happened to go by an idol, a cross, or a church; or he was supplicating in a place where there was a cross of which he was unaware; or he entered a church merely to spend the night in a permissible manner and there called upon Allah