and the like, or by the compilers of works such as Mālik’s Muwatta’ and others. Rather, most reports narrated on this subject are lies and fabrications, such as the saying attributed to him (peace and blessings be upon him):

“Whoever visits me and my father Abraham in the same year, I guarantee him Paradise from Allah.”

This hadith is a fabrication and a lie, by scholarly agreement. The same applies to the saying attributed to him:

“Whoever visits me after my death, it is as though he visited me during my lifetime; and whoever visits me after my death, I guarantee him Paradise from Allah.”

None of this has any basis. Although al-Dāraqutnī and al-Bazzār, in his Musnad, narrated some of these reports, their chains of transmission depend on Abd Allāh ibn Umar al-Umarī, or on narrators even weaker than him, whose reports cannot establish a ruling of Islamic law.

Rather, the leading scholars relied in this matter on what Abū Dāwūd narrated in his Sunan, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

“No man greets me with peace but Allah restores my soul to me so that I may return his greeting.”

Likewise, the Sunan of al-Nasā’ī contains the report that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

“Allah has appointed angels at my grave to convey to me the greetings of peace from my community.”

Sending blessings and peace upon him is something Allah and His Messenger have commanded; hence the scholars have recommended it. Further clarification of this is that Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him—disliked a man saying: