the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—nor did they adjure Allah by any of His creatures. Rather, they sought a means of approach to Him through the means He prescribed: righteous deeds and the supplications of believers. Thus, a servant seeks a means of approach to Allah through faith in His Prophet, love and allegiance to him, and sending blessings and peace upon him. Just as they sought a means of approach through his supplication and intercession during his lifetime, so too will people seek a means of approach through his supplication and intercession in the Hereafter.

One may also seek a means of approach through the supplications of the righteous, as the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“Are you granted victory and provision except through the weak among you—through their supplications, prayers and seeking forgiveness?”

It is self-evident that if supplicating at graves were better than supplicating elsewhere, more beloved to Allah and more readily answered, the early generations would have known this better than later generations and would have hastened to it. They knew best what Allah loves and is pleased with, and were foremost in obeying Him and seeking His pleasure. The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—would also have explained this and encouraged it. For he commanded everything good and forbade everything evil. He left nothing that brings one closer to Paradise without telling his community about it, nor anything that distances one from the Fire without warning his community against it. He left his community upon a clear path, whose night is as bright as its day; none turns away from it after him except one who is doomed.

How could that be, when he forbade this kind of practice and cut it off at its root through his curse and his prohibition against taking graves as places of worship? He thus forbade praying to Allah while facing graves, even if the person praying neither worships the dead nor invokes them—just as prayer was forbidden at sunrise and sunset, because these are