or Suwaʿ, or Yaghūth, or Yaʿūq, or Nasr’ (71:23). A group of the early Muslims said that these were righteous men from Noah’s people; when they died, their folk began to linger at their graves, then fashioned images of them and ended up worshipping them. Such practices, and everything like them, constitute innovated forms of visitation. They belong to the very religion of the Christians and the idol-worshippers: the visitor goes intending that his supplication be answered at the grave, or he calls upon the deceased, seeks his rescue, petitions him for needs, or swears by him before God to relieve distress. All of these, without exception, are innovations.” End of quotation from Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 27/31-32.

This statement makes the Shaykh’s view on visiting graves perfectly clear: it follows the textual proofs, permitting what they permit and prohibiting the polytheistic, innovated forms they prohibit.

4. They further claim that he declared tawassul—seeking a means of approach—in supplication to be disbelief or polytheism. This too is a blatant lie against Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, for he never issued a blanket ruling that tawassul is disbelief or polytheism. Rather, he distinguished between the tawassul that is sanctioned and the tawassul that is forbidden. His own words are as follows—he, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

“The term tawassul is used in three senses:

1. Tawassul through obedience to him—that is, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. This is obligatory, and faith is not complete without it.

2. Tawassul through his supplication and intercession. This was possible during his lifetime, and on the Day of Resurrection people will seek his intercession.

3. Tawassul by swearing an oath upon God by his very person and asking by his very person. This the Companions never did when seeking rain (istisqāʾ) or anything similar—neither in his lifetime nor after his death, neither at his grave nor elsewhere. Nothing of this kind is found in any of the well-known supplications transmitted from them. Only a few weak reports—whether traced back to the Prophet or halted at a Companion—or statements from those whose words carry no legal weight mention it. This is precisely what Abū Ḥanīfah and his disciples declared impermissible, forbidding it with the maxim, ‘No one should ask by a created being…’”