for your invocations of blessings are presented to me.”

They asked, “How will our invocations of blessings be presented to you when you have crumbled away?”—that is, decayed.

He replied, “Allah Most High has forbidden the earth to consume the flesh of the prophets.”

Al-Nasā’ī and others also narrated that he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

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

Despite this, none of them said that supplications are answered at his grave, or that it is recommended to make a point of supplicating while facing his grave. Rather, they explicitly stated the opposite, and all agreed that one should not supplicate while facing the grave. They differed, however, concerning greeting him with peace.

The majority, including Mālik, Ahmad, and others, said that one should greet him with peace while facing the grave. This is also what al-Shāfi‘ī’s followers stated, and I believe it is reported from him as well. Abū Hanīfah and his followers, however, said that one should greet him with peace while facing the qiblah.

Indeed, the imams of the early generations explicitly stated that one should not stand at his grave to supplicate at all, as Ismā‘īl ibn Ishāq mentioned in his book al-Mabsūt, and as al-Qādī ‘Iyād also related. Mālik said:

“I do not consider it appropriate for someone to stand at the grave of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and supplicate. Rather, he should greet him with peace and move on.”

He also said in al-Mabsūt:

“There is no harm in someone returning from a journey or setting out on one standing at the grave of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—invoking blessings upon him, and supplicating for him and for Abū Bakr and ‘Umar.”

He was then asked:

“But some people of Medina who have neither returned from a journey nor intend to undertake one do this once a day or more. Sometimes they stand there once or twice in a week or a day, or