It is well known that anything neither prescribed nor recommended by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or by any of these authorities whom Muslims follow in their religion, is a reprehensible innovation. No one would call such a thing a good innovation. For a good innovation—according to those who divide innovations into good and bad—must be recommended by a scholar whose example is followed, and there must be evidence from Islamic law establishing that it is recommended.

Likewise, those who maintain that every innovation in the religious sense is blameworthy, citing the Prophet’s words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in the authentic hadith:

“Every innovation is misguidance,”

explain that when ʿUmar said of the Tarāwīh prayers:

“What an excellent innovation this is!”

he called it an innovation only in the linguistic sense. According to them, an innovation in the religious sense is something for which no evidence from Islamic law establishes that it is recommended.

The two positions ultimately amount to the same thing, for they agree that whatever Islamic law has not made recommended or obligatory is neither obligatory nor recommended. Thus, anyone who adopts an act as worship and religion when it is neither obligatory nor recommended in Islamic law is misguided, by the agreement of the Muslims.

Going to graves in order to supplicate there, hoping that one’s supplication will be answered, falls into this category. It is not prescribed in Islamic law, whether as an obligation or a recommendation. It is therefore neither a religious practice nor something good, neither an act of obedience to Allah nor something He loves and is pleased with, neither a righteous deed nor a means of drawing near to Him. Whoever regards it as any of these things is misguided, by the agreement of the Muslims.