Thus, the supplication prescribed there is the very same as the supplication one offers when visiting the graves of other believers—namely, supplicating for them. And he, may my father and mother be ransomed for him, ﷺ, is the most deserving of all people that blessings and peace be invoked upon him and that supplication be made on his behalf. In this way Mālik’s statements are in full agreement: he differentiates between the supplication he approved and the supplication he disapproved of and labeled an innovation.

As for the story that Mālik used to recite the verse,

“If, when they had wronged themselves, they had come to you…” (Q 4:64), (3)

it is—Allah knows best—spurious. To my knowledge, none of the leading Imams ever mentioned it, nor did any of them say that it is recommended to petition the Prophet after his death, whether for forgiveness or anything else. His own recorded words, and those of his peers, run counter to such a claim.

This report is known only from an anecdote cited by some later jurists, telling of a Bedouin who came to the Prophet’s grave, recited that very verse, and then recited two lines of poetry:

O best of those whose bones lie buried in this plain,
so that from their fragrance the plain and hilltops are made sweet!
My life be ransomed for the grave in which you dwell—
in it abide purity, generosity, and noble grace. (5)

Because of this anecdote, a group of late jurists from the Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī schools considered such a practice commendable and cited the story as proof, even though no legal ruling can be established on it—especially concerning a matter which, had it truly been prescribed and recommended, the Companions and their Followers would have known and practiced better than anyone else. The Bedouin’s need being met, and the like of it, in fact rests on other causes.