Likewise, the Rāfidah went to excess regarding the messengers—or rather, regarding the Imams—until they took them as lords besides Allah. They therefore abandoned the worship of Allah alone, without partner, which the messengers had commanded them to uphold, and denied what the Messenger reported (1) concerning the prophets’ repentance and their seeking forgiveness. Thus, you find them leaving deserted the mosques that Allah commanded to be raised and His name remembered in. They perform neither Friday nor congregational prayer in them and attach no great (2) sanctity to them. Even when they pray there, they pray alone. Yet they venerate the shrines built (3) over graves and devote themselves to them in imitation of the polytheists. They make pilgrimages to them just as a pilgrim performs Hajj to the Ancient House. Some of them even regard pilgrimage to these shrines as greater than pilgrimage to the Kaaba. Indeed, they revile anyone who does not deem pilgrimage to them sufficient in place of the pilgrimage Allah has made obligatory for His servants, and who does not deem them sufficient in place of Friday and congregational prayers.

This belongs to the same kind of religion as that of the Christians and polytheists, who prefer the worship of idols to the worship of the Most Merciful. It is authentically established in the Sahīh collections that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“Allah cursed the Jews and Christians; they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship.” (4)

Five days before his death, he also said:

“Indeed, those who came before you used to—”