He—may Allah have mercy on him—was also asked about the saying:

“Whoever performs Hajj but does not visit me has shunned me.”

He replied:

The saying, “Whoever performs Hajj and does not visit me has shunned me,” is a fabrication. Shunning the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is forbidden, whereas visiting his grave is not obligatory, by the unanimous agreement of the Muslims. No hadith concerning visiting his grave has been authentically established from him. Rather, reports circulated such as:

“Whoever visits me and visits my father in the same year, I guarantee that Allah will grant him Paradise,”

and others like it are fabrications by scholarly consensus. Al-Dāraqutnī and others have narrated hadiths concerning visiting his grave, but they are weak.

Mālik—one of those most knowledgeable about the rights of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the sunnah followed by the people of his city among the Companions, their Followers, and the generation after them—disapproved of saying, “I visited the grave of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.” Had this wording been authentically established from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and been known to the scholars of Medina, Mālik would not have disapproved of it.

As for saying, “I greeted the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with peace,” there is unanimous agreement that this is not disapproved of. As reported from him in the Sunan collections, he said:

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

It was also the practice of