and would warn their disciples against praying there, in obedience to the command of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and for fear of disobeying him, as noted above.

Such was the practice of their shaykhs in times past. As for many of our shaykhs today, they are heedless of this legal ruling; a good number of them actually seek out these very mosques in order to pray in them. I myself, when I was young and had not yet learned the Sunnah, used to accompany some of them to the grave of Shaykh Ibn ʿArabī and pray there with him! Once I came to know the prohibition of that act, I debated the aforementioned shaykh at length until Allah guided him, whereupon he stopped praying there. He later acknowledged this to me and thanked me for having been the means of his guidance. May Allah have mercy on him and forgive him.

All praise is due to Allah, who has guided us to this; had He not guided us, we would never have found the way.