who took the graves of their prophets as places of worship.’ He forbade applying this expression to the grave and imitating that practice, so as to block the means to wrongdoing and close the door to it.”

I say:

The numerous hadiths reported concerning visiting his grave are all weak—indeed, fabricated. Neither the leading hadith scholars nor the compilers of the recognized Sunan collections, such as those of Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasā’ī, transmitted anything on this subject. However, the expression “visiting graves” occurs in other hadiths, such as his words—may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“I had forbidden you to visit graves. Now visit them, for they remind you of the Hereafter.”

He—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to teach his Companions that, when visiting graves, each of them should say:

“Peace be upon you, inhabitants of these dwellings, believers and Muslims. We shall, if Allah wills, join you. May Allah have mercy on those among us and you who have gone before and those who come later. We ask Allah for well-being for ourselves and for you.”

Yet, in the customary usage of many later generations, the expression “visiting graves” has come to encompass both innovated visits and visits prescribed by the religion. Most of them use it only in the innovated sense, not the prescribed one. This is why using the expression without qualification was considered objectionable.

As for visiting graves in the prescribed manner, it is akin to the funeral prayer over the deceased: its purpose is to supplicate for the deceased, just as that is the purpose of the funeral prayer. Thus Allah said concerning the hypocrites:

“Never pray over any of them who dies, nor stand at his grave.”

Thus, when He prohibited