He—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—prohibited this only to block the means leading to polytheism, just as he prohibited prayer at sunrise and sunset lest it lead to polytheism. He asked Allah, Mighty and Majestic, not to let his grave be made into an idol that is worshipped. Allah answered his supplication—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—so his case was unlike that of those whose graves were taken as places of worship: no one can enter where his grave is at all.

Whenever the communities of the prophets before him introduced a religious innovation, Allah would send a prophet to forbid it. But he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—is the Seal of the Prophets; there is no prophet after him. Allah therefore protected his community from agreeing upon misguidance and protected his honoured grave from being made into an idol. For if that were done—and we seek refuge in Allah from it—there would be no prophet after him to forbid it, and those who did it would have gained ascendancy over the community. Yet he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—has stated that a group of his community will continue to uphold the truth victoriously, unharmed by those who oppose or abandon them, until the Day of Resurrection. Thus, the people of religious innovation have had no way to do to his honoured grave what has been done to the graves of others. May Allah bless him and grant him peace.

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I have mentioned in my writings on the pilgrimage rites that travelling to his mosque and visiting his grave—as the leading Muslim scholars discuss in their works on the pilgrimage rites—is a righteous deed