Refutation of the Reports That Encourage Supplication at the Grave
It does not follow from what he has said that the practice is recommended. Indeed, one might even say that his claim resembles what some people assert when they declare: “Such-and-such a place accepts vows,” or, “Vows should be made for that spot.” They proceed to specify a particular spring, well, tree, cave, rock, or some other object of devotion. Just as statements of this sort carry no weight in the religion, so too does the first claim.
To this hour I have not found a single concession from the early generations permitting it, apart from what Ibn Abī al-Dunyā narrated in his book Graves. Through his chain he relates from Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Fudayk, who said: “Sulaymān ibn Yazīd al-Kaʿbī told me, on the authority of Anas ibn Mālik, that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: ‘Whoever visits me in Madinah seeking reward, I shall be his intercessor and witness on the Day of Resurrection.’”
Ibn Abī Fudayk added, “ʿUmar ibn Ḥafṣ informed me that …”
(1) MS AT reads: “wa-yaʿnun” (and they mean).
(2) ʿAbd Allah b. Muhammad b. ʿUbayd b. Sufyan b. Qays al-Qurashi al-Umawi—their client—better known as Abu Bakr Ibn Abi al-Dunya, a Baghdadi ḥafiẓ, prolific author, and tutor of the caliphs’ children; judged trustworthy (ṣadūq). He was born in 208 AH/823 CE and died in 281 AH/894–95 CE. See: Ibn Hajar, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 6:12–13, no. 18.
(3) Sulayman b. Yazid al-Khuzaʿi, Abu al-Muthannā al-Kaʿbi—called by Ibn Hajar alternately al-Kalbi and al-Kaʿbi. Abū Ḥātim deemed his hadith “objectionable” and al-Dāraqutni declared him weak. Ibn Hajar, in Taqrīb, classes him as a weak transmitter of the sixth tier; al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Mājah cite his reports. See: Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 12:221, no. 1014; Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb 1:331, no. 504; 2:469, no. 17.
(4) Al-Suyuti lists the hadith in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr 2:605, no. 8716, grading it ḥasan (fair). Al-Manāwi objects in Fayḍ al-Qadīr 6:141: “The author—meaning al-Suyuti—marked it ḥasan, but it is not; it contains weak narrators, among them Abu al-Muthannā Sulayman b. Yazid al-Kaʿbi. Al-Dhahabi said he was ‘abandoned,’ and Abū Ḥātim called his hadith objectionable.”
(5) ʿUmar b. Ḥafṣ al-Madani. Ibn Hibbān includes him among the thiqāt (reliable transmitters), and Abu Dawud narrated from him; overall assessment: maqbūl (acceptable). See: Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb 7:435, no. 214.