and Allah may pardon him. As for those who know what Allah and His Messenger have commanded and forbidden, none of them has instructed people to travel solely to visit a grave, whether that of a prophet or anyone else. Indeed, leading scholars among the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others have explicitly declared such travel forbidden. Only a group of later scholars among the followers of al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad have said that it is permissible rather than forbidden.

They consequently differed over whether someone who travels solely to visit the graves of prophets and righteous people may shorten his prayers. There are two views, as mentioned in the response to the request for a fatwa.

Some of them distinguished between the graves of prophets and those of others, and said that travelling solely to visit graves is forbidden, as is the position of Mālik and his followers and the view of the earlier scholars among the followers of al-Shāfiʿī and Ahmad. These scholars hold that someone whose journey itself constitutes disobedience may not shorten his prayers. Thus, according to their view, prayers are not to be shortened on such a journey. However, those who undertake these journeys do not know that this is forbidden, and anyone who knew it was forbidden would not do it, for no Muslim intends to draw nearer to Allah through something forbidden.

Accordingly, if they shorten their prayers during a journey that they did not know was forbidden, this is permissible, and they do not have to repeat those prayers. This is like someone who travels to seek knowledge or to hear hadith from a particular person, only to discover that he is a liar or ignorant: shortening the prayers during such a journey is permissible.

The followers of Ahmad have mentioned four views on whether prayers may be shortened during journeys to visit the graves of prophets and righteous people:

One view is that prayers may not be shortened in any such case.