in question has issued no fatwa on these matters except in accordance with the position of some of them; indeed, no fatwa on these matters can be issued otherwise. Whoever condemns what he does not know, judges without knowledge, and contradicts the scriptural texts and scholarly consensus—his judgment is invalid by consensus.
The thirty-first ground:
As for their statement, “He is to be imprisoned if he does not desist, and his case is to be publicized so that people guard against following his example”—only someone who openly promotes innovation in the Muslims’ religion, regards it as recommended, calls people to it, and rules that those who enjoin the Sunnah and call to it should be punished deserves such treatment. Travelling to visit graves is precisely the innovation that none of the imams of the Muslims regarded as recommended. Likewise, treating visitation to graves as a single category, without distinguishing between visitation sanctioned by Islamic law and innovated visitation, is an error by the agreement of the Muslims. The same applies to equating “the visitation to the Prophet sanctioned by Islamic law,” in which Muslims travel to the mosque of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with travelling to visit someone else’s grave. All this contradicts the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the consensus of his community.
Thus, someone who enjoins this is more deserving of being restrained and having his error publicized, so that people guard against following his example, than someone who issues fatwas in accordance with the Sunnah and scholarly consensus. Yet it is Allah, glorified be He, who brings this about: He is the One who exposes these people’s error throughout the East and the West, in this age and in the ages to come, just as He has done with all others who introduced innovations into religion and contradicted the revealed law of the foremost of the messengers. For in his response, the mufti set out what Muslims unanimously agree is recommended