The explicit and inferred consensus of the early scholars stands firmly against this practice; so how is it—praise be to God—that nothing of the sort is reported from any recognized Imām or respected authority?

Whatever is cited in its favor is either a fabrication attributed to its alleged source, such as the story some people relay from Imām al-Shāfiʿī:

“Whenever hardship befalls me, I go to the grave of Abū Ḥanīfah and supplicate, and my prayer is answered,”

—or words to that effect. Anyone familiar with the science of transmission knows with certainty that this report is false. When al-Shāfiʿī first arrived in Baghdad, there was not a single grave in the city to which people would go specifically to make supplication; in fact, such a custom was entirely unknown in his time. Moreover, al-Shāfiʿī had visited, in the Ḥijāz, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, the tombs of Prophets, Companions, and Successors—individuals whom he and the Muslims regarded as far superior to Abū Ḥanīfah and scholars of his stature—yet he never singled out any of their graves for supplication. Why, then, would he supposedly choose only Abū Ḥanīfah’s grave?

Further, Abū Ḥanīfah’s own students who met him—such as Abū Yūsuf, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, Zufar, al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyād, and their entire cohort—never sought out supplication at Abū Ḥanīfah’s grave or at any other grave whatsoever.