Section

A response to what was written on a copy of the fatwa response, explaining its invalidity and that, by the consensus of the Muslims, a ruling based upon it is invalid on numerous grounds. These have been set out at length elsewhere. They are fifty grounds demonstrating the invalidity of what was written and of the ruling based upon it.

The first ground is that he attributed to the response something it did not contain, then based his ruling on that false attribution. Such a ruling is invalid by consensus. He alleged that the respondent had said, “Visiting the prophets is a religious innovation,” or had stated something to that effect. Yet the respondent neither said this nor reported it from any scholar. The response merely mentioned the scholars’ views concerning someone who travels solely to visit the graves of the prophets and the righteous: whether such travel is forbidden or permissible, and that both groups agreed that it is not recommended.

Neither group said this about visiting graves in general. Rather, the majority of them say that visiting graves is recommended. This is the correct view, as indicated by the authentic hadiths. They do not, however, say that travelling to visit them is recommended, just as the Muslims agree that attending mosques other than the three mosques is prescribed, and that attending them