“When you hear the caller to prayer, say what he says, then invoke blessings upon me. Whoever invokes blessings upon me once, Allah will bless him ten times in return. Then ask Allah to grant me al-wasīlah, for it is a rank in Paradise reserved for a single servant of Allah, and I hope to be that servant. Whoever asks Allah to grant me al-wasīlah will be entitled to my intercession on the Day of Resurrection. No Muslim sends greetings of peace upon me but Allah restores my soul to me so that I may return his greeting.”

As for the innovated form of visiting, it is the visiting practised by those who associate partners with Allah, like the visits made by Christians who intend to call upon the deceased, seek his assistance, and seek the fulfilment of their needs at his grave. They pray at his grave and supplicate through him. Neither this nor anything like it was practised by any of the Companions, commanded by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or recommended by any of the early generations of the Muslim community or its leading scholars. Rather, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, closed “the door to associating partners with Allah.”

An authentic report relates that he said during his final illness:

“May Allah curse the Jews and Christians; they took the graves of their prophets as places of prayer.”

He was warning against what they had done. ‘Ā’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, said: “Were it not for that, his grave would have been left in the open. But it was considered objectionable that it should be taken as a place of prayer.”

Five days before his death, he said:

“Those before you used to take graves as places of prayer. Be warned: do not take graves as places of prayer, for I forbid you to do so.”

Thus, the first form of visiting is a form of worshipping Allah and doing good to His creation.