We have cited from Imām Aḥmad and others that when a person has greeted the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and his two Companions, and then wishes to make supplication, he should move away and face the qiblah. More than one of the early scholars, such as Mālik and others, likewise rejected the practice, and among the later scholars the same was done by Abū l-Wafāʾ Ibn ʿAqīl and Abū l-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī.

I do not know of any Companion, Successor, or recognized Imām who ever considered it recommended to set out for a grave in order to supplicate there. No one has transmitted anything on this—neither from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, nor from his Companions, nor from any of the well-known authorities.

Scholars have compiled works on supplication, its proper times and places, and the reports related to it, yet, to the best of my knowledge, not a single one of them has uttered even a word about the virtue of praying at any grave. How, then, can it be claimed—under these circumstances—that supplication there is more readily answered or more meritorious, when the early generations repudiated it, did not recognize it, forbade it, and never enjoined it?

Admittedly, from about the third century onward scattered remarks began to appear in the speech of some people, such as: “So-and-so’s grave is a place where the answer is hoped for,” or “So-and-so is invoked at his grave,” and the like. Anyone who says this or orders it—whoever he may be—must be censured; at best he is either exercising ijtihād in this matter or merely following another, and Allah may pardon him.