your faces toward Him at every mosque, and call upon Him, sincerely devoting your worship to Him.” Allah Most High also says:

“Only those who believe in Allah and the Last Day maintain Allah’s mosques.”

And He says:

“Do not have sexual relations with them while you are in devotional retreat in the mosques.”

And He says:

“The mosques belong to Allah, so do not invoke anyone alongside Allah.”

And He says:

“Who is more unjust than those who prevent Allah’s name from being mentioned in His mosques and strive to bring about their ruin?”

It is authentically reported in the Sahīh that he, peace and blessings be upon him, used to say:

“Those before you used to take graves as places of worship. Beware! Do not take graves as places of worship, for I forbid you to do so.”

And Allah knows best.

This concludes Shaykh al-Islām’s answer. Allah, glorified and exalted be He, knows best. He has discussed such matters extensively elsewhere, as he indicated in his answer.

When they obtained this answer in Damascus, they copied it and sent it to Egypt. The Shāfiʿī judge wrote upon it:

“I checked the answer to this question against the text in Ibn Taymiyyah’s handwriting and found it correct.”

Later in his statement, he said:

“The distortion lies in his declaring that visiting the grave of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and the graves of the other prophets—may Allah Most High be pleased with them all—is a sin conclusively established by consensus.”

These were his words.

Consider this misrepresentation of Shaykh al-Islām! His answer contains no prohibition against visiting the graves of the prophets and the righteous. He merely mentioned two opinions concerning undertaking travel solely to visit graves.