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Forbidden tabarruk (seeking blessing)
The first type: Forbidden tabarruk with awliya (close righteous servants of Allah) and salihin (righteous people)
The second type: Tabarruk with times, places, and things that the Sharia did not say are for tabarruk
The third type: Tabarruk with places and things that are truly virtuous
The first matter: Innovative tabarruk with the Prophet ﷺ after his death
Doing some acts of worship at the Prophet’s grave
Touching the grave, wiping it, kissing it, and the like
Innovative tabarruk with places where the Prophet ﷺ sat or prayed after his death
Places where the Prophet ﷺ worshipped without intending the place itself
Innovative tabarruk with the Prophet ﷺ after his death by the alleged footprint
Innovative tabarruk with the place of the Prophet’s ﷺ birth after his death
Forbidden tabarruk (seeking blessing)
Forbidden tabarruk is divided into two parts.
- The first is shirk based tabarruk.
- The second is bidah based tabarruk. (Kitab al Tibyan pages 26 to 27, Kitab al Tanshit pages 60 to 65, Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah 3/1575 to 1579, al Taysir chapter “Whoever sought blessing from a tree or stone” page 148)
Shirk based tabarruk (associating partners with Allah)
This is when the person believes the thing they seek blessing from gives blessing by itself, independently. This is major shirk, because blessing is only from Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Blessing is from Allah.” So seeking blessing from other than Allah in this independent way is shirk. (Sahih al Bukhari hadith 5639, Sahih Muslim hadith 771)
Bidah based tabarruk (invented religious practice)
This is seeking blessing from something with no proof in the Sharia that it is allowed, while believing Allah placed blessing in it, or seeking blessing from something allowed in the Sharia but doing it in a way or place the Sharia did not allow.
This is haram because it invents worship with no proof from the Book or Sunnah. It also treats what is not a Sharia cause as if it is a cause, so it is minor shirk, and it can lead people into major shirk.
This includes religious tabarruk, and it also touches worldly tabarruk. (Majmu al Fatawa 27/137, al Qawl al Mufid chapter “Whoever sought blessing from a tree or stone”, al Shirk wa Mazahiruh page 99, Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah pages 1578 to 1579, al Taysir pages 148 and 153, al Qawl al Sadid page 53, Kitab al Tawhid by Dr Salih al Fawzan page 112)
Bidah based tabarruk is divided into three types. (Majmu al Fatawa 27/137)
The first type: Forbidden tabarruk with awliya (saints) and salihin (righteous)
Tabarruk with the body and traces of the Prophet ﷺ was established in many narrations, such as with his hair, sweat, and clothes. But his traces have been lost, and his minbar burned in 654 AH, so nothing remains with certainty from his traces now.
What remains is tabarruk by following him ﷺ, because the real blessing of the Messenger ﷺ reaches the one who believes in him and obeys him, in this life and the next. (Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim page 727, Majmu al Fatawa 11/113 to 114, Hidayat al Salik 3/1390, al Tawassul by al Albani page 161, Hadhihi Mafahimuna by Shaykh Salih Al al Shaykh page 204)
As for anyone besides the Prophet ﷺ from the awliya and the salihin, there is no clear authentic proof allowing tabarruk with their bodies or traces. The Sahabah and the Tabiin did not do this with anyone, not even with Abu Bakr, not with the ten promised Jannah, not with Ahl al Bayt, and not with anyone else.
Their agreement on leaving this is a clear proof it is not allowed. At the same time, the blessing of a righteous Muslim is real in their obedience to Allah, and in the benefit Allah sends through them, like benefit to Muslims, rain, goodness, victory, and repelling harm, but this is not the forbidden tabarruk of wiping, kissing, and taking traces. (Majmu al Fatawa 11/113 to 115, Majmu al Fatawa 27/96)
Many imams and ulama reported agreement on forbidding tabarruk with the bodies and traces of other than the Prophet ﷺ, including Abu Ishaq al Shatibi (Maliki), Ibn Rajab (Hanbali), Sulayman ibn Abd Allah, Abd al Rahman ibn Hasan, Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, al Mayli al Jazairi, Abd al Rahman ibn Qasim, and Shaykh Ibn Baz.
Seeking blessing from the person or traces of any righteous person other than the Prophet ﷺ is disobedience, and it wrongly gives others a special matter Allah gave to His Prophet ﷺ, and it places ordinary awliya and salihin as equals to the best of creation. (al Itisam 2/8 to 9, al Hukm al Jadira bil Idhaah page 55, al Din al Khalis 2/249 to 250, Fatawa Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim 1/103 and 109, al Shirk wa Mazahiruh page 103, comments of Ibn Baz on Fath al Bari funerals 3/130 and 144)
Some forbidden forms of tabarruk with righteous people include the following. (al Hukm al Jadira bil Idhaah page 56, Hidayat al Salik pages 1390 to 1391, Risalat Ziyarat al Qubur wal Istinjad bil Maqbur pages 27 to 32, Majmu al Fatawa 4/521 and 26/97 and 27/79 to 109 and 27/136 and 27/294, al Ikhtiyarat funerals page 92, al Sarim al Munki pages 109 and 178)
- Wiping oneself on them, or wiping their clothes, then wiping the face with it, or wearing their clothes, or drinking after them seeking blessing. Imam Ahmad strongly rejected this when a man did it with his clothes. (al Hukm al Jadira bil Idhaah page 56)
- Kissing their graves, wiping them, and taking their soil seeking blessing. Izz al Din ibn Jamaah (Shafii) said bending at the grave and kissing the ground is bidah, and the Salaf did not do it, and blessing is only in what agrees with the Sharia and the way of the Salaf. He also condemned those who give fatwa allowing it while knowing it opposes the Salaf. (Hidayat al Salik pages 1390 to 1391, Risalat al Tawhid by al Dahlawi pages 23 and 240)
- Worshipping Allah at their graves seeking blessing, while believing worship there has special virtue and is a cause for acceptance and answered duaa. Ibn Hajar al Haytami (Shafii) mentioned this under the major sins, and al Alusi (Hanafi) it approvingly does the same in his tafsir. (al Zawajir 1/148 to 149, Ruh al Ma’ani on al Kahf verse 21)
The scholars from the Shafiiyyah and the Hanafiyyah also described touching and kissing graves seeking blessing as from the habits of Christians and the People of the Book, and some counted it among major sins. Al Ghazali (Shafii) said it is worship of Christians and Jews.
Al Nawawi (Shafii) quotes al Zafarani condemning touching and kissing graves as invented matters, and he also said the fuqaha of Khurasan that the visitor does not wipe, does not kiss, and does not touch, and they gave the analogy that even the two Syrian corners of the Kabah are not touched because it is not from the Sunnah, so graves are even more deserving not to be touched.
Abu Muhammad al Ayni (Hanafi) said placing the hand on a grave is bidah, and he mentioned that the Shuyookh of Makkah rejected it and linked it to the habits of Christians. (Ihya Ulum al Din 4/522, Hashiyah Ibn Hajar on Manasik al Nawawi page 454, al Majmu 5/311, al Binayah 3/305, Islah al Masajid pages 72 and 217)
The second type: Tabarruk with times, places, and things that the Sharia did not say are for tabarruk
This includes aiming for places the Prophet ﷺ passed by, or worshipped Allah in by coincidence, without intending the place itself, and with no Sharia proof showing special virtue for that place. Examples mentioned include Jabal Thawr, the cave of Hira, and Jabal Arafat which some call Jabal Ilal and common people call Jabal al Rahmah.
It also includes places on travel routes, the seven masajid near the trench, and places people claim are his birthplace, and similar places claimed for prophets or awliya without proof. It is not allowed to aim to visit these places for worship, prayer, duaa, or anything else, and it is not allowed to wipe them seeking blessing. It is not legislated to climb these mountains, not during Hajj nor otherwise. Even at Arafat, climbing the mountain and wiping the pillar is not legislated. (Iqtida page 810, “Jabal Ilal bi Arafat” by Bakr Abu Zayd)
No Companion is established to have travelled to these places for tabarruk by kissing, touching, or wiping, and they also did not travel to them for worship. What is narrated about Ibn Umar praying in places where the Prophet ﷺ prayed does not mean travelling to seek those spots.
Rather, he would pray there when he passed by on his route, matching the form of the action, not treating the spot itself as a legislated place of worship.
The Sahabah agreed that no places are honoured except what the Prophet ﷺ honoured.
Shaykh al Islam also said visiting masajid built in Makkah on traces, like the masjid under al Safa or the claimed birthplace, is not from the Sunnah and the imams did not recommend it. (Iqtida pages 570 to 758 and 806 to 812, Majmu al Fatawa 10/410 to 411 and 17/466 to 481 and 17/496 to 497, Majmu al Fatawa 26/144)
The Prophet ﷺ said: “No journeys are made except to three masajid: this masjid of mine, al Masjid al Haram, and al Masjid al Aqsa.”
Ibn Hajar explained this includes travelling to places for the sake of that place, and Abu Basrah rejected travelling to Jabal al Tur using this hadith, and Abu Hurayrah approved it by silence. Ibn Umar also told someone to leave al Tur and not go to it. (Sahih al Bukhari hadith 1189, Sahih Muslim hadith 1397, Fath al Bari 3/660, al Muwatta 1/109, Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 2/374 to 375)
Umar ibn al Khattab forbade people from stopping at a place just because the Prophet ﷺ had prayed there, and he warned that earlier nations were destroyed because they took the traces of their prophets as churches. He said whoever passes by and prayer time comes can pray, otherwise he continues. (Abd al Razzaq hadith 2734, Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah 2/376, Iqtida page 751)
Ibn Taymiyyah says: if the Prophet ﷺ did something by coincidence, without intending to single out the place, then singling it out later is not following him, rather it becomes bidah, and it resembles the destroyed path of the People of the Book. (Majmu al Fatawa 1/280)
This same understanding is shown by the detailed report that the Prophet ﷺ and the earliest Muhajirin did not return to the cave of Hira after prophethood, and the Rightly Guided Caliphs and early Muslims did not travel to it.
The cave of Thawr mentioned in the Quran in “The second of two, when they were in the cave” (al Tawbah: 40) also was not made a place for travel, prayer, or duaa. Claims of special prayer places like Bayt Lahm were also rejected as not authentic. When Muslims came to al Sham with Umar and many Sahabah settled there, they still did not build masajid around such traces. (Iqtida 2/331 to 334 and 2/352, Zad al Maad 3/31)
This category also includes tabarruk with trees, stones, pillars, wells, and springs that common people think are blessed, because of claims like a prophet or wali stood there, dreams, or stories of cure. People then wipe, kiss, wash, and hang cloth pieces, nails, and clothes, and this can lead to worshipping them and believing they harm and benefit by themselves.
Abu Shamah (Shafii) described how Shaytan beautifies these actions until people neglect obligations and think they draw near to Allah by them, and he compared it to Dhat Anwat. Shaykh al Islam rejected the fabricated saying, “If one of you had good belief about a stone Allah would benefit him with it,” and called it speech of shirk and lies. (al Baith ala Inkar al Bida wal Hawadith page 23, Majmu al Fatawa 11/513 to 514)
It is established that this kind of tabarruk can be a path into major shirk. Abu Waqid al Laythi narrated that some Companions at the earlier stages of their acceptance of Islam, asked the Prophet ﷺ to make for them a Dhat Anwat like the mushrikin had, and he rejected it and compared it to Banu Israil asking Musa for a god like the gods of others. The explanation given is that tabarruk with trees is a type of shirk, even if it is minor shirk.
Because of this danger, it is required to remove these causes: cutting trees, destroying wells and springs, and removing stones that people seek blessing from, to block the path to shirk, just as Umar cut the tree of Bayat al Ridwan when people started going to it.
Abu Bakr al Tartushi (Maliki) said any tree people seek for cure and hang things on is a Dhat Anwat, so it should be cut.
Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani mentioned the chain of Umar cutting it and explained the wisdom is preventing fitnah. (al Qawl al Mufid 1/205, Majmu al Fatawa 3/274, Iqtida page 808, al Hawadith wal Bida pages 38 to 39, Fath al Bari 7/446, Sahih al Bukhari hadith 2958)
Another example here is singling out certain nights and days people claim are tied to major events, like the night they claim Isra and Miraj happened in, and similar matters, and this is discussed later under bidah.
Bidah tabarruk is among the greatest causes that leads to major shirk. The historians mention that the Arabs fell into shirk through honouring stones from the Haram of Makkah and seeking blessing from them.
Al Shatibi (Maliki) said common people do not stop at limits, rather they exaggerate until their tabarruk becomes the root of worship, and he linked this to Umar cutting the tree.
Ibn al Haj (Maliki) also linked wiping and circling graves to the same door that led earlier people into idol worship, and he said tabarruk is only by following the Prophet ﷺ. (Sirah of Ibn Hisham 1/77 and 1/81, Sirah of Ibn Kathir 1/117, al Asnam by al Kalbi page 48, al Itisam 2/9, al Madkhal 1/263)
The third type: Tabarruk with places and things that are truly virtuous
The Sharia affirms blessing in many places, times, and things, such as the honoured Kabah, the three masajid, Laylat al Qadr, the Day of Arafah, Zamzam water, suhur for the fasting person, and going early to seek provision. Tabarruk here is only by the acts the Sharia itself linked to them, and it is not allowed to seek blessing in other ways.
Tabarruk with the Kabah is by tawaf, and wiping the Black Stone and the Yemeni corner, and kissing the Black Stone only during tawaf, and praying inside it. Tabarruk with al Masjid al Haram is by prayer and itikaf. Tabarruk with Laylat al Qadr is by standing in prayer and reciting the Book of Allah. Tabarruk with Zamzam is by drinking and washing with it seeking cure.
If a person takes something truly virtuous but singles it out with a form of worship or tabarruk not reported, then he has opposed what is legislated and invented bidah.
Singling out Laylat al Qadr with an Umrah, kissing or wiping the walls of the Kabah, wiping Maqam Ibrahim, wiping Hijr Ismail, wiping the covering of the Kabah, and wiping the walls and pillars of al Masjid al Haram and the Prophet’s masjid. The Companions and the Salaf agreed these are not legislated.
Ata ibn Abi Rabah (d. 114 AH) said he did not see any person of authority or sound judgement, kiss or touch the Maqam.
Imam Qatadah (d. 117 AH) explained the command is to pray near it, not wipe it.
Ibn al Zubayr (d. 73 AH) forbade wiping the Maqam and said people were commanded to pray, not wipe.
Imam al Nawawi said kissing and touching Maqam Ibrahim is bidah, and Ibn Hajar al Haytami explained kissing and touching is worship only established by text for the Black Stone, and nothing is established for the Maqam. (Iqtida 808 to 809, Majmu al Fatawa 4/521 and 27/79 and 27/106 and 27/110, Abd al Razzaq hadith 8957 and 1005 and 8958, al Tabari Tafsir hadith 2000, Manasik al Nawawi page 397)
Umar’s famous statement when kissing the Black Stone shows the foundation: “I know you are a stone, you do not harm and you do not benefit. If I had not seen the Prophet ﷺ kissing you, I would not have kissed you.”
Mulla Ali al Qari (Hanafi) said this points to pure worship, and that a Muslim does it because it is legislated, not because the stone benefits by itself.
This also supports the rule that nothing from lifeless things is legislated to be kissed except the Black Stone, and nothing is legislated to be touched except the two Yemeni corners.
Ibn Taymiyyah said the ulama agreed the visitor does not wipe or kiss the Prophet’s grave ﷺ, and they agreed it is not Sunnah to kiss the other corners of the Kabah, nor its walls, nor Maqam Ibrahim, nor the Rock of Bayt al Maqdis, nor any grave.
Imam Malik disliked touching the Prophet’s minbar because it is bidah, while Ahmad allowed it because Ibn Umar did it, but all of them forbade wiping and kissing the grave itself. (Sahih al Bukhari hadith 1597, Mirqat al Mafatih 3/213, Majmu al Fatawa 27/78 to 80 and 3/274)
Innovative tabarruk with the Prophet ﷺ after his death
Among the clearest forms of innovative tabarruk after his death is tabarruk with his grave. Asking the Messenger ﷺ for duaa or shafaah at his grave is from unlawful tawassul. Tawassul by his duaa was in his life ﷺ, and his shafaah is on the Day of Judgement.
Ibn Taymiyyah said a person does not stand at the grave to make duaa for himself, because this is bidah, and none of the Sahabah did it.
They would face the qiblah and make duaa in his masjid. He also said none of the imams, not the four imams nor others, regarded it as recommended, and the Sahabah faced drought, fear, enemies, and sins after his death, yet none came to the grave asking him to ask Allah for rain, victory, forgiveness, or relief. (Majmu al Fatawa 26/147 and 1/161, Tashil al Aqidah al Islamiyyah pages 289 to 313)
As for asking the Prophet ﷺ after his death to fulfil needs, remove distress, cure illness, or seeking help, then this is shirk with Allah, because it is calling upon the dead for what is only asked from Allah.
Abdullah Aba Butayn says the Sahabah never came asking him for duaa after his death, and Umar sought rain by al Abbas, not at the grave.
Ali ibn al Husayn forbade a man from entering an opening near the grave to make duaa, and he narrated: “Do not take my grave as an eid, and do not make your houses graves, for your salam reaches me wherever you are.”
Ibn Baz also said it is not allowed to wipe the chamber, kiss it, or go around it, and it is not allowed to ask the Messenger ﷺ for needs or intercession, because intercession belongs to Allah, so it is asked from Allah, and a person says: O Allah accept the intercession of Your Prophet, and similar wording. He also supported this with the hadith that when the son of Adam dies, deeds stop except three. (al Durar al Saniyyah 12/179, Majmu Fatawa Ibn Baz 16/104 to 105)
Statements from the ulama of the four madhhahib on the main forbidden forms of tabarruk
Hanafiyyah
Hanafi ulama defined shirk tabarruk as believing the thing gives blessing independently, and they counted bidah tabarruk as forbidden and a path to shirk.
Abu Muhammad al Ayni said placing the hand on a grave is bidah and rejected, and Ahmad al Tahtawi said the visitor does not touch or kiss the grave and that touching and kissing as worship is only known for the Black Stone.
Mulla Ali al Qari explained Umar’s words at the Black Stone as pure worship and a protection from falling into stone worship beliefs. (al Binayah 3/305, Hashiyat al Tahtawi page 620, Mirqat al Mafatih 3/213)
Malikiyyah
Imam Malik (d. 179 AH) disliked seeking out the place of the tree of Bayat al Ridwan, to differ from Jews and Christians. Al Shatibi (d. 790 AH) said tabarruk is a root that leads to worship when people exaggerate, and he pointed to Umar cutting the tree.
Ibn al Haj (d. 737 AH) condemned those who circle the Prophet’s grave like the Kabah, wipe it, kiss it, and throw cloths on it for tabarruk. He said tabarruk is only by following the Prophet ﷺ, and that the idol worship of Jahiliyyah came from this door.
Abu Bakr al Tartushi (d. 520 AH) said any tree that people aim for, hang things on, and seek cure from is a Dhat Anwat, so it should be cut. (Sharh al Muwatta as quoted in al Taysir page 295, al Itisam 2/9, al Madkhal 1/263, al Hawadith wal Bida pages 38 to 39)
Shafiiyyah
Al Nawawi (d. 676 AH) said touching and kissing graves and the Maqam Ibrahim is not Sunnah, and he transmitted rejection of touching and kissing graves as invented matters.
Ibn Hajar al Haytami (d. 974 AH) linked touching and kissing shrines to the habits of Christians and Jews, and he explained that acts of kissing and touching are worship only established by text for the Black Stone, not for other things.
Abu Shamah (d. 665 AH) described how people are misled into honouring walls, pillars, trees, and springs until they seek healing and fulfilment of needs through them.
Izz al Din ibn Jamaah (d. 819 AH) condemned bending, kissing the ground, and similar grave practices as bidah that oppose the Salaf.(al Majmu 5/311, Hashiyah Ibn Hajar on Manasik page 454, Manasik al Nawawi page 397, al Baith ala Inkar al Bida page 23, Hidayat al Salik pages 1390 to 1391)
Hanabilah
Imam Ahmad (d. 241 AH) became angry and strongly rejected wiping his clothes for blessing.
Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) repeatedly said standing at the grave for personal duaa is bidah, and asking the dead for needs and istigaatha is shirk. He also transmitted agreement that graves are not wiped or kissed.
Al Buhuti (d. 1051 AH) said the visitor does not wipe the grave of the Prophet ﷺ, nor its wall, does not press against it, and does not kiss it. (Majmu al Fatawa 26/147 and 27/78 to 80, Bughyat al Nasik page 127)
Forbidden tabarruk (seeking blessing)
This is forbidden tabarruk (seeking blessing). It is divided, in terms of its ruling, into two parts.
The first is shirk tabarruk (seeking blessing).
This is when the one seeking blessing believes tnohat the created thing he is seeking blessing from gives blessing by itself, so it blesses things by its own self independently. (Tibyan, pages 26 and 27, and al Tanshit, pages 60 to 65, both by al Rustumi al Hanafi, quoted from Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah by Shams al Din al Afghani, volume 3, pages 1575 to 1578. See also al Taysir, chapter “Whoever sought blessing from a tree or stone”, page 148.)
This is because Allah Most High alone creates blessing and gives it. It is established in Sahih al Bukhari that the Prophet ﷺ said: «البركة من الله» “Blessing is from Allah.” (Sahih al Bukhari, at the end of the Book of Drinks, hadith 5639. Muslim also narrated in his Sahih, in the section on prayer, hadith 771, that the Prophet ﷺ used to say in the opening supplication of the prayer: «والخير كله في يديك» “All goodness is in Your Hand.”) So asking for blessing from other than Him, or believing that other than Him gives it by its own self, is major shirk.
The second is bidah tabarruk (seeking blessing) (invented religious practice). This is seeking blessing from something that there is no proof in the Sharia (revealed law) that it is allowed to seek blessing from, while believing that Allah placed blessing in it, or seeking blessing from something that the Sharia allowed seeking blessing from, but doing it in a way or place that the Sharia did not allow.
There is no doubt this is haram, because it is inventing an act of worship that has no proof from the Book or the Sunnah. (This is only about religious tabarruk (seeking blessing). ) It is also because it makes something that is not a cause into a cause, so it is minor shirk (associating partners with Allah).
(This includes religious tabarruk and worldly tabarruk, and there will be more detail about this when speaking about minor shirk, if Allah wills.) It also leads to falling into major shirk, as will be explained.)
(Majmu al Fatawa, volume 27, page 137. Al Qawl al Mufid, chapter “Whoever sought blessing from a tree or stone”. Al Shirk wa Mazahiruh by al Mayli al Jazairi, page 99. Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah, pages 1578 and 1579. See also al Taysir, pages 148 and 153, al Qawl al Sadid, page 53, and Kitab al Tawhid by Dr Salih al Fawzan, page 112.)
This part, meaning bidah tabarruk (seeking blessing), is divided into three types.
The first type
Forbidden tabarruk with awliya (close righteous servants of Allah) and salihin (righteous people)
Many proofs show the lawfulness of tabarruk (seeking blessing) with the body and traces of the Prophet ﷺ, such as his hair, his sweat, his clothes, and other things. (Many texts exist about this. They can be found in books of the Sirah and books of Sunnah, and Dr Nasir al Juday collected them in a dissertation called “al Tabarruk”, and Dr Ali al Ulayyani in a dissertation called “al Tabarruk”.)
But all traces of the Prophet ﷺ have been lost, and his minbar (pulpit) burned in 654 AH, so there is nothing from his traces now with certainty. So nothing remains except tabarruk (seeking blessing) by following him ﷺ.
Whoever believes in him ﷺ and follows him will gain much good in the dunya (this life) and the akhirah (next life) from the blessing of the Messenger ﷺ, because of his belief and his obedience to him. (See Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, page 727. Majmu al Fatawa, volume 11, pages 113 and 114. Hidayat al Salik by al Kattani al Shafii, volume 3, page 1390. Al Tawassul by al Albani, page 161. Hadhihi Mafahimuna by Shaykh Salih Al al Shaykh, page 204.)
As for other than the Prophet ﷺ from the awliya (close righteous servants of Allah) and the salihin (righteous people), there is no clear authentic proof that shows the lawfulness of tabarruk (seeking blessing) with their bodies or with their traces. (The blessing of a Muslim is in his obedience to Allah Most High, and what Allah makes happen through him of benefit for the Muslims, and what Allah sends through him to the slaves of rain, goodness, and victory, and what He repels from them of harm because of his obedience, righteousness, and duaa (supplication). This is true and established, and it is not from forbidden tabarruk. See Majmu al Fatawa, volume 11, pages 113 to 115, and volume 27, page 96.).
That is why it is not narrated from any of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, nor from any of the Tabiin (followers of the Companions), that they sought blessing from the body or traces of any righteous person. They did not seek blessing from the best of this ummah after its Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr al Siddiq (Allah be pleased with him), nor from any of the ten promised Jannah, nor from any of Ahl al Bayt (the Prophet’s family), nor from anyone else.
If it were good, they would have done it before us, because of their strong eagerness to do every type of righteousness and good. So their agreement upon leaving tabarruk (seeking blessing) with the body and traces of other than him ﷺ is clear proof that it is not allowed. (Many imams and ulama reported their agreement on this, including Abu Ishaq al Shatibi al Maliki al Andalusi in al Itisam, volume 2, pages 8 and 9, Ibn Rajab in al Hukm al Jadira bil Idhaah, page 55, Siddiq Hasan al Bukhari in al Din al Khalis, volume 2, page 249, Sulayman ibn Abd Allah in al Taysir, and Abd al Rahman ibn Hasan in Fath al Majid, both in the chapter “Whoever sought blessing from a tree or stone”, and Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim as in his Fatawa, volume 1, pages 103 and 109, and al Mayli al Jazairi in al Shirk wa Mazahiruh, page 103, and Abd al Rahman ibn Qasim in his Hashiyah, page 95, and Shaykh Abd al Aziz ibn Baz in his comments on Fath al Bari, in the section on funerals, volume 3, pages 130 and 144.)
So whoever seeks blessing from the person or traces of any righteous person other than the Prophet ﷺ has disobeyed Allah Most High and disobeyed His Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. He has also given to others from people a special matter that Allah gave to His Prophet ﷺ, and he has made ordinary awliya and salihin equal to the best of people and the master of the children of Adam.
This contains belittling of his right, and it is proof of weakness in love for him ﷺ in the heart of this person who is seeking blessing. (Hasan Siddiq Khan, a leading alim from India, said in al Din al Khalis, volume 2, page 250: “It is not allowed that anyone from the ummah be compared to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Who is it that can reach his level? In his life he had many special matters that no one else is fit to share with him in.”)
Some forbidden types of tabarruk with righteous people are as follows.
First, wiping oneself on them. (Ibn Rajab al Hanbali mentioned in al Hukm al Jadira bil Idhaah, page 56, that a man came to Imam Ahmad and wiped his hands on Imam Ahmad’s clothes, then wiped his face with them. Imam Ahmad became angry and rejected it strongly, and said: From whom did you take this matter?) Also wearing their clothes, or drinking after they drink, seeking blessing.
Second, kissing their graves, wiping on them, and taking their soil seeking blessing. (Izz al Din ibn Jamaah al Kinani al Shafii said in Hidayat al Salik, pages 1390 and 1391: Some ulama counted as bidah (invented practice) bending down to the honoured grave when giving salam, because one who has no knowledge thinks it is a sign of honour. Worse than this is kissing the ground for the grave. The Salaf (early Muslims) did not do it, and all good is in following them, may Allah have mercy on them and benefit us through them.
Whoever thinks that kissing the ground is more in blessing is only showing his ignorance and heedlessness, because blessing is only in what agrees with the Sharia and the words and actions of the Salaf.
My surprise is not at the one who is ignorant and does it, rather my surprise is at the one who gives a fatwa saying it is good while knowing its ugliness and its مخالفة (opposition) to the actions of the Salaf, and he uses poetry as proof. We ask Allah to grant us success in words and deeds, and to protect us from desires and slips through His favour and generosity. See also Risalat al Tawhid by al Dahlawi al Hindi, pages 23 and 240.)
A group of ulama narrated agreement that all of this is forbidden. (See Risalat Ziyarat al Qubur wal Istinjad bil Maqbur, pages 27 to 32. Al Istighathah fil Radd ala al Bakri, volume 1, page 356. Majmu al Fatawa, volume 4, page 521, volume 26, page 97, and volume 27, pages 79 to 109, and pages 136 and 294. Al Ikhtiyarat, section on funerals, page 92. Al Sarim al Munki, pages 109 and 178.
Al Zawajir al Kabirah, from page 93 to 98, volume 1, page 149. Ibn Hajar al Haytami said in his Hashiyah on the Manasik of al Nawawi, page 454, that Imam Ahmad said: I saw the people of knowledge in Madinah, they do not touch the grave.
See also al Sarim al Munki, page 191. Al Nawawi al Shafii said in his Manasik, page 453, in the eighth matter of visiting: It is not allowed to make tawaf (circling) around the grave of the Prophet ﷺ. It is disliked to press the stomach and back against the wall of the grave, as al Halimi and others said. It is disliked to wipe it with the hand and to kiss it. Rather, proper manners are to keep away from it, as one would keep away if he were present in his life. This is the correct view, and it is what the ulama said and agreed upon.
One should not be deceived by many common people in their مخالفة (opposition) to this, because following and acting is only by the words of the ulama, and one does not look at the invented acts and ignorance of common people. Whoever thinks wiping with the hand and similar things is more in blessing is only showing his ignorance and heedlessness, because blessing is only in what agrees with the Sharia and the words of the ulama, and how can one seek virtue by opposing the correct view.
Shaykh Muhammad Nasir al Din al Albani, the hadith alim of Syria, said in Tahdhir al Sajid, page 107, after quoting al Nawawi: May Allah have mercy on Imam al Nawawi. With this statement he gave these shaykhs who wipe graves in action or encourage it in speech what they deserve, because he counted them among the common people whose ignorance must not be followed. Is there anyone who will take reminder?)
Abu Hamid al Ghazali al Shafii (d. 505 AH), and other ulama from the Shafiiyyah and Hanafiyyah, mentioned that these actions are from the habits of Christians.
Some ulama from the Shafiiyyah and some from the Hanafiyyah also said that touching graves seeking blessing is a major sin from the major sins. (Ibn Hajar al Haytami al Shafii said in his Hashiyah on the Manasik of al Nawawi, page 454: He said in Ihya Ulum al Din: Touching and kissing shrines is worship of Christians and Jews. Al Zafarani said: That is from bidah that is rejected in the Sharia. It is narrated from Anas that he saw a man put his hand on the noble grave, so he forbade him and said: We did not know this, meaning coming this close.
From what was stated, it is known that touching and kissing shrines of awliya is disliked. See also Ihya, the sixth chapter, volume 4, page 522. Even though al Ghazali had some tasawwuf (Sufism), when the truth became clear to him in this matter, he said it, so the Muslim must follow the truth and not follow desires against the Sunnah.)
(Al Nawawi said in al Majmu, volume 5, page 311: Abu al Hasan Muhammad ibn Marzuq al Zafarani, one of the verifying jurists, said in his book on funerals: A person does not touch the grave with his hand and does not kiss it. This is how the Sunnah continued.
He said: Touching graves and kissing them, which common people do today, are rejected invented matters in the Sharia. It should be avoided, and the one who does it should be forbidden. Abu Musa said: The deeply knowledgeable jurists of Khurasan said: What is recommended in visiting graves is that the person stands with his back to the qiblah (direction of prayer), facing the face of the dead person, gives salam, and does not wipe the grave, does not kiss it, and does not touch it, because that is the habit of Christians.
They said: What they mentioned is correct, because it is authentic that exaggeration in honouring graves is forbidden. Also, if it is not recommended to touch the two Syrian corners of the Kabah because it was not part of the Sunnah, even though touching the other two corners is recommended, then it is even more appropriate that touching graves not be recommended, and Allah knows best.
Abu Muhammad al Ayni al Hanafi said in al Binayah, in the section on funerals, when speaking about placing the hand on a grave, volume 3, page 305: Sharaf al Aimmah said: It is bidah. He said: Shaykhs of Makkah used to reject that and say it is the habit of the People of the Book, and in narrations it is the habit of Christians.
Al Zafarani said: A person does not kiss the grave and does not kiss it with the lips, and the Sunnah continued on this. What people do now is rejected bidah in the Sharia.
In Jawami al Fiqh: A grave is visited from a distance, the visitor does not sit, and when making duaa for the dead person he faces the qiblah, and also at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ. See also Islah al Masajid by al Qasimi, pages 72 and 217.)
Third, worshipping Allah at their graves seeking blessing, while believing that worshipping Allah Most High there has special virtue, and that it is a cause for acceptance of the worship, and a cause for duaa being answered. There will be speech about this type with more detail in the next section, if Allah wills. (Ibn Hajar al Haytami al Shafii mentioned this in al Zawajir an Iqtiraf al Kabair, in the section on the major sin from 93 to 98, volume 1, pages 148 and 149. This was also transmitted from some Shafiiyyah.
Al Alusi al Hanafi quoted the words of al Haytami in his Tafsir Ruh al Ma’ani, in his Tafsir of verse 21 of Surah al Kahf, approving it. The words of al Haytami will be quoted later, if Allah wills, when explaining that building masjids (places of prayer) on graves and worshipping Allah at them is from the major sins.)
Ibn Taymiyyah said: It is established in the Sahih that the Prophet ﷺ, when he came to Bayt al Maqdis (Jerusalem) on the night of Isra, prayed two rakah in it. He did not pray in any other place besides it, and he did not visit any other place. The hadith of the Mirajcontains what is in the Sahih, and it contains what is in the Sunan (hadith books) and the Masanid (hadith collections). It also contains what is daif, and it contains matters that are mawdu (fabricated) and conflicting. An example is what some people narrate in it: that the Prophet ﷺ was told by Jibril that this is the grave of your father Ibrahim (Abraham), so go down and pray in it, and this is Bethlehem, the birthplace of your brother Isa, so go down and pray in it.
Even more strange than that is what is narrated in it, that he was told in Madinah: go down and pray here, before his masjid was built, even though that place was only a graveyard of the polytheists. After the Hijrah (migration), the Prophet ﷺ only stopped there because his camel knelt there. This and similar reports are invented lies, by agreement of the people of knowledge.
Bayt Lahm is a church from the churches of the Christians. There is no virtue for Muslims in going to it, whether it was the birthplace of Isa عليه السلام or not. Rather, even the grave of Ibrahim al Khalil (Ibrahim the close friend of Allah) was not a place that any of the Sahabah (Companions) or those who followed them with ihsan (excellence) would go to for salah at it, or for dua, and they did not intend it for ziyarah (visiting) at all.
The Muslims came to al Sham more than once with Umar ibn al Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), and many of the Sahabah settled in al Sham, yet none of them did any of this. The Muslims did not build any masjid there at all.
Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, (2/352).
Zad al Maad, (3/31)
Imam Abu Ishaq al Shatibi al Maliki al Andalusi said: The apparent conclusion in this type of matter is that it would be legislated regarding someone whose wilayah (righteous closeness to Allah) is established, and whose following of the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is established. So a person would seek barakah (blessing) through the leftover water of his wudu (ablution), rub himself with his saliva, seek cure through all of his traces, and hope for benefits similar to what used to be hoped for from the traces of the greatest one who is followed (4).
However, one clear and decisive principle stands in the way of that, even though applying it can be difficult. It is that the Sahabah (may Allah be pleased with them), after his death ﷺ, none of them did any of that with respect to the people who came after him.
The Prophet ﷺ did not leave behind in the ummah anyone better than Abu Bakr al Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him). He was his successor, yet nothing like that was done with him. The same applies to Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both).
He was the best of the ummah after him. Then the same applies to Uthman, then Ali, then the rest of the Sahabah, who no one in the ummah is better than. Yet it has not been established from any one of them, through a sound and well known chain, that anyone sought barakah from him in any of those ways or similar ways.
Rather, they limited themselves, regarding them, to following their actions, sayings, and way of life, in which they followed the Prophet ﷺ. So it is as if there is an ijma (consensus) from them upon leaving all of those things.
al Iʿtisam 1/482.
The second type
Tabarruk with times, places, and things that the Sharia did not say are for tabarruk
Examples include places that the Prophet ﷺ passed by, or worshipped Allah in by coincidence, without intending the place itself, but only because he ﷺ was in that place at the time of his worship, and there is no proof in the Sharia that shows it has virtue.
From these places are Jabal Thawr, the cave of Hira, and Jabal Arafat. (It is also called Jabal Ilal, like the word Hilal, and common people call it “Jabal al Rahmah”. See Iqtida, page 810, and the treatise “Jabal Ilal bi Arafat” by Shaykh Bakr Abu Zayd.) Also the places the Prophet ﷺ passed by in his travels, the seven masjids near the trench, and the place that some people claim the Prophet ﷺ was born in, even though there is much difference about his birthplace. Similar to this are places where it is said a prophet or wali (close righteous servant of Allah) was born, or lived, and similar things, even though much of this is not proven.
So it is not allowed for a Muslim to aim to visit these places to worship Allah Most High there, or on them, by prayer, duaa, or anything else. It is also not allowed for a Muslim to wipe any of these places seeking blessing. It is not legislated to climb these mountains, not in the days of Hajj nor other than them. Even Jabal Arafat, it is not legislated to climb it on the Day of Arafah, nor other than it, nor to wipe the pillar above it. Rather, what is legislated is to stand by the rocks near it if it is easy, otherwise the pilgrim stands anywhere in Arafat.
That is why it is not established from any of the Companions that they aimed for any of these places to seek blessing by kissing, touching, or other things. It is also not established that any of them aimed for them to worship Allah there. (As for what is narrated from Ibn Umar, Allah be pleased with them both, that he prayed in places where the Prophet ﷺ had prayed, he did not travel to them, and he did not aim to visit them while being elsewhere. Rather, when he passed by them on his travel route and it was time for prayer, or he wanted to pray a certain voluntary prayer, he prayed there.
He loved to match the Prophet ﷺ in the form of the action, no more. This is shown by what will come from Ibn Umar later, and by what will come at the narration of Umar cutting the tree of Bayat al Ridwan at the end of this topic. As for creating a prayer because of the spot itself, or travelling for worship in that spot, Ibn Umar and other early Muslims did not do this. The Companions agreed that no places are honoured except what the Prophet ﷺ honoured.
Even if Ibn Umar created a voluntary prayer for the spot when he passed it, which is not proven that he did, he did not travel for it, and he would have opposed the rest of the Companions, led by his father, the second of the rightly guided caliphs whom we are commanded to follow, as will come. See Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, pages 570 to 758, and pages 8030 to 0828, and Majmu al Fatawa, volume 10, pages 410 and 411, and volume 17, pages 466 to 481, and pages 496 and 497.
Shaykh al Islam said in Majmu al Fatawa, volume 26, page 144: As for visiting the masjids built in Makkah other than al Masjid al Haram, such as the masjid under al Safa, and what is on the slope of Abu Qubays, and similar masjids built on traces of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions, like the masjid of the birthplace and others, none of that is from the Sunnah, and none of the imams recommended it.)
It is established that the Prophet ﷺ said: «لا تُشَدُّ الرِّحَالُ إلا إلى ثلاثة مساجد: مسجدي هذا، والمسجد الحرام، والمسجد الأقصى» “No journeys are made except to three masjids (places of prayer): this masjid of mine, al Masjid al Haram, and al Masjid al Aqsa.” (Sahih al Bukhari, “Virtue of prayer in the masjid of Makkah and Madinah”, hadith 1189. Sahih Muslim, “Hajj”, hadith 1397. Ibn Hajar al Asqalani al Shafii said in Fath al Bari, volume 3, page 660, about the meaning: Do not make a journey to any masjid or to any place for the sake of that place, except to the three mentioned. What shows that the intended meaning includes places is that Abu Basrah al Ghifari rejected a man who travelled to Jabal al Tur and used this hadith as proof. Abu Hurayrah, Allah be pleased with him, approved this by remaining silent when Abu Basrah rejected it.
The report was narrated by Imam Malik in al Muwatta, in the chapter on the hour of Jumuah, volume 1, page 109, and al Tayalisi, hadith 1348, and Ahmad, volume 6, page 7 and page 397, and al Nasai, hadith 1429, through two authentic chains. Al Albani graded it authentic in al Irwa, hadith 970, and in Tahdhir al Sajid, page 95.
Also al Azraqi narrated in Hadd al Masjid al Haram wa Fadlih, volume 2, page 65, with a hasan chain from Qazah that he said: I wanted to go out to al Tur, so I asked Ibn Umar and he said: Do you not know that the Prophet ﷺ said: No journeys are made except to three masjids, and leave al Tur, do not go to it. See also Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, volume 2, pages 374 and 375. Al Albani graded its chain authentic in al Janaiz, page 287.)
It is also established from Umar ibn al Khattab, Allah be pleased with him, the second of the rightly guided caliphs whom we are commanded to follow, that when he saw people, while returning from Hajj, stopping and praying in a masjid, he asked about them. They said: A masjid where the Prophet ﷺ prayed. So he said: Those before you were only destroyed because they took the traces of their prophets as churches. Whoever passes by any of these masjids and the prayer time comes, let him pray, otherwise let him continue. (Al Bay’ means the plural of bi’ah, with a kasrah on the ba, which is a place of worship for Jews and Christians. See al Qamus and al Misbah under the word bay’. Also see Hashiyat al Sindi on Sunan al Nasai, volume 2, page 369. This report was narrated by Abd al Razzaq, in “What is read in Fajr”, hadith 2734, and Ibn Abi Shaybah in “Prayer”, the chapter “Praying at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ”, volume 2, page 376, and Saeed as quoted in Iqtida, page 751, and Ibn Waddah, hadith 104. Its chain is authentic, and its narrators are the narrators of al Bukhari and Muslim. Shaykh al Islam graded it authentic as in al Fatawa, volume 10, page 410. Ibn Hajar graded it authentic in al Fath, volume 1, page 569. Al Albani said in Tahdhir al Sajid, page 93: Its chain is authentic upon the condition of the two shaykhs, meaning al Bukhari and Muslim.)
This is the speech of the rightly guided caliph Umar ibn al Khattab, Allah be pleased with him, about whom the Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah has placed the truth upon the tongue of Umar and in his heart.” (Tirmidhi 3682, Ahmad, volume 2, page 401. Ibn Abi Shaybah, volume 12, page 25. Ibn Abi Asim, hadith 1250. Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, hadith 1889. Its chain is authentic, and it has a supporting narration in Ibn Hibban, hadith 6895, and others.)
The Prophet ﷺ also said about him and Abu Bakr, Allah be pleased with them both: “Follow the two after me, Abu Bakr and Umar.” (Ahmad, volume 5, page 399. Al Tirmidhi, hadith 3663. Ibn Abi Shaybah, volume 12, page 11. Ibn Hibban, hadith 6902. Ibn Adi, volume 2, page 666. Its chain is authentic.)
This statement of Umar shows a warning against tabarruk with places the Prophet ﷺ passed by or worshipped Allah in without intending the place itself. It shows it is not allowed to aim for these places for worship of Allah there. The Salaf and all who followed their path agreed upon this, because it is from newly invented matters that have no proof. (See what was quoted earlier about there being no proof from any Companion that they aimed for these places for tabarruk. See also Iqtida, pages 806 to 812. Majmu al Fatawa, volume 3, page 274, and volume 27, page 110. Al Ikhtiyarat, section on Hajj, page 118. Al Shirk wa Mazahiruh by al Mayli al Jazairi, in the section on visiting, page 246. Al Qawl al Sadid, chapter “Whoever sought blessing from a tree or stone”, page 53. Shaykh Shams al Din al Afghani quoted in Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah, pages 650 to 652, a group of Hanafiyyah ulama forbidding tabarruk with traces of prophets and places of their worship. Ibn Abd al Baqi said in Sharh al Muwatta, as quoted in al Taysir, page 295: Malik disliked seeking the place of the tree of Bayat al Ridwan, to differ from Jews and Christians. See also Hujjat Allah al Balighah by al Dahlawi al Hindi, volume 1, page 543.)
Another example is tabarruk with some trees, some stones, some pillars, some wells, and springs that some common people think have virtue. This may be because they think a prophet or a wali stood on a certain stone, or that a prophet slept under a certain tree, or someone sees a dream that this tree or stone is blessed, or they believe a prophet washed in that well or spring, or a person washed in it and was cured, and similar claims.
So they exaggerate and seek blessing by wiping on trees and stones, and washing with the water of that well or spring seeking blessing, and they hang cloth pieces, nails, and clothes on the tree. They may end up worshipping these things, and believing they benefit and harm by themselves. (Abu Shamah al Shafii said in al Baith ala Inkar al Bida wal Hawadith, page 23, while speaking about types of bidah that both common people and educated people know are bidah: From this type is what has become widespread, where Shaytan beautifies for common people colouring walls and pillars and lighting lamps at certain places in every land. A person tells them that he saw in his dream at that place someone well known for righteousness and wilayah, and they do these actions and keep doing them, while they neglect the obligations of Allah and His Sunnah, and they think they are drawing near to Allah by this.
Then it goes further until these places become greatly honoured in their hearts, and they hope for healing for their sick, and for needs to be fulfilled by making vows for them, while they are only springs, trees, a wall, or a stone. In the city of Damascus, may Allah protect it, there are many places like this, such as Uwaynat al Humma outside Bab Tuma, and the coloured pillar inside Bab al Saghir, and the cursed dry tree outside Bab al Nasr on the road.
May Allah make its cutting and removal from its roots easy. How similar it is to Dhat Anwat mentioned in the hadith. Also, from what causes many common people to fall into exaggeration is holding on to some fabricated hadiths, like the hadith: If one of you had good belief about a stone, Allah would benefit him with it. Shaykh al Islam said in Majmu al Fatawa, volume 11, pages 513 and 514, after mentioning this hadith: It is from the speech of shirk and lies. The worshippers of idols had good belief about them, yet they and their idols were fuel for Hell, as Allah Most High said: إِنَّكُمْ وَمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ حَصَبُ جَهَنَّمَ أَنتُمْ لَهَا وَرِدُونَ “You and what you worship besides Allah are fuel for Jahannam (Hell). You will enter it.” See also Ighathat al Lahfan, volume 1, page 215.)
There is no doubt that tabarruk with trees, stones, springs, and similar things, by any type of tabarruk, such as wiping, kissing, washing, or other things mentioned, is haram by agreement of the ulama. Only ignorant people do it, because it invents acts of worship that have no basis in the Sharia. (Shaykh al Islam said in Iqtida, pages 808 and 809: The ulama agreed upon what the Sunnah continued upon, that it is not legislated to touch or kiss the standing place of Ibrahim, peace be upon him, which Allah mentioned in the Quran when He said: وَاتَّخِذُوا مِن مَّقَامِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ مُصَلًّى “And take the standing place of Ibrahim as a place of prayer.”
So if this is established by a widely transmitted Sunnah and by agreement of the imams that it is not legislated to kiss it with the mouth or wipe it with the hand, then other standing places of prophets are even more deserving that they not be kissed or wiped. Also, the place where the Prophet ﷺ used to pray in Madinah constantly, none of the Salaf touched it or kissed it. The places where he prayed in Makkah and elsewhere, they also did not touch or kiss them. So if the place that he used to step on with his noble feet and pray upon was not legislated for his ummah to wipe or kiss, then how about what is claimed that someone else prayed in or slept on.)
It is also one of the greatest causes of falling into major shirk. This is shown by what Abu Waqid al Laythi narrated: We went out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ before Hunayn, and we were newly out of kufr (disbelief). The mushrikin (idol worshippers) had a lote tree that they would stay around and hang their weapons and belongings on. It was called Dhat Anwat.
We passed by a lote tree and we said: O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, make for us a Dhat Anwat like their Dhat Anwat. He said: «الله أكبر» “Allah is greater.” This is like what Banu Israil said: اجْعَل لَّنَا إِلَهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَةٌ “Make for us a god like they have gods.” (Surah al Araf 138).
Then he said: “You are a people who are ignorant. You will follow the ways of those before you.” (Narrated by Imam al Shafii in al Sunan al Mathurah, hadith 400, and Abd al Razzaq, hadith 20763, and Ahmad, volume 5, page 218, and al Tirmidhi, hadith 2180, and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih, hadith 6702, and others, with an authentic chain. Its narrators are the narrators of al Bukhari and Muslim. A group of ulama graded it authentic. See Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah, page 660. The word yanutun means they hang. Dhat Anwat is the name of a particular tree. See al Sihah and al Nihayah under the root nawata.)
So when those Companions, who were newly Muslim, asked for a tree to seek blessing from, copying the mushrikin, the Prophet ﷺ rejected it. He told them their request resembled the request of Banu Israil to Musa, peace be upon him, to make gods for them, copying the mushrikin of their time. Their request was like the request of Banu Israil in the sense that both involved seeking similarity to mushrikin in something that is shirk, even if what those Companions requested was minor shirk. (Al Qawl al Mufid, in the chapter “Whoever sought blessing from a tree or stone”, volume 1, page 205, while explaining this hadith, said: These people asked for a lote tree to seek blessing from as the mushrikin sought blessing from it, and those people asked for a god as they had gods. So both requests oppose tawhid (singling out Allah alone), because tabarruk with trees is a type of shirk, and taking it as a god is clear shirk.)
It is known with certainty from the din (religion) of Islam that there is no stone or other thing that is legislated to wipe or kiss seeking blessing, even the standing place of Ibrahim, peace be upon him, it is not legislated to kiss it at all, even though he stood on it and his feet left marks on it. The ulama agreed on this. (Shaykh al Islam narrated this agreement in Majmu al Fatawa, volume 3, page 274, and in Iqtida, page 808. A group of Hanafiyyah ulama also narrated it as in Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah, page 657.)
It is also required to cut trees, destroy wells and springs, and remove stones that common people seek blessing from, to block the path to shirk, as Umar, Allah be pleased with him, did when he cut the tree of Bayat al Ridwan. (Abu Bakr al Tartushi al Maliki, who died in 530 AH, said in al Hawadith wal Bida, the second chapter, pages 38 and 39, after mentioning the hadith of Abu Waqid al Laythi: Look, may Allah have mercy on you. Wherever you find a lote tree or any tree that people aim for and honour, and they hope for cure and healing from it, and they hang nails and cloth on it, then it is a Dhat Anwat, so cut it. Ibn Saad narrated, volume 2, page 100, and Ibn Abi Shaybah, volume 2, page 375, and Ibn Waddah, hadith 105, from Nafi, the freed slave of Ibn Umar, that Umar was told that people go to the tree under which the pledge was given, so he ordered it and it was cut.
Ibn Hajar al Shafii said in Fath al Bari, volume 7, page 446: I found in Ibn Saad with an authentic chain from Nafi. I say: it is as he said. The place of this tree was hidden from the Companions and they could not identify it. Sahih al Bukhari, hadith 2958, narrates from Ibn Umar that he said: We returned the next year and no two of us agreed on the tree under which we pledged. It was a mercy from Allah. Ibn Hajar explained the wisdom of this earlier, that it prevents fitnah. Even so, some ignorant people in the time of Umar sought blessing by worshipping Allah at a tree in al Hudaybiyyah, thinking it was the tree of Bayat al Ridwan. So Umar cut it to block the path to evil, and to fear exaggeration that could lead to major shirk.)
Another example is tabarruk with certain nights and days that people say great events happened in, such as the night they claim the Isra and Miraj happened in, and similar matters. There will be discussion about this with more detail later, if Allah wills, in the fifth chapter of this section when speaking about bidah.
The third type
Tabarruk with places and things that are truly virtuous
Many texts in the Sharia show the virtue and blessing of many places, like the honoured Kabah, and the three masjids (places of prayer), and many times like Laylat al Qadr, and the Day of Arafah, and many other things like Zamzam water, and suhur (pre dawn meal) for the fasting person, and going early to seek provision, and other things.
Tabarruk with these things is by doing the acts of worship and other actions that the Sharia shows have virtue in them. It is not allowed to seek blessing by anything other than what is reported. (For example, tabarruk with the Kabah is by making tawaf around it, and worshipping Allah by wiping the Black Stone and the Yemeni corner, or kissing the Black Stone only during tawaf, and by praying inside it. Tabarruk with al Masjid al Haram is by praying and making itikaf (staying in the masjid for worship) in it, and similar actions. Tabarruk with Laylat al Qadr is by standing in prayer in it, reciting the Book of Allah, and similar actions. Tabarruk with Zamzam water is by drinking it and washing with it seeking cure from illnesses, and similar actions. The rest of the blessed virtuous matters follow the same rule.)
So whoever seeks blessing from times, places, or things that texts show are blessed, but he singles them out with worship or a form of tabarruk that the Sharia did not single them out with, then he has opposed what is legislated and invented a bidah that has no basis.
This includes someone who singles out Laylat al Qadr with an Umrah, or someone who seeks blessing from the walls of the Kabah by kissing or wiping them, or someone who wipes the standing place of Ibrahim, or the stone called Hijr Ismail, or the covering of the Kabah, or the walls of al Masjid al Haram, or the Prophet’s masjid, and their pillars, and similar actions. All of this is haram, and it is from invented bidah, and the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ and the Salaf of this ummah agreed it is not legislated. (Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, pages 808 and 809. Majmu al Fatawa, volume 4, page 521, and volume 27, pages 79, 106, 110, and 1060. Al Ikhtiyarat, section on funerals, page 92, and section on Hajj, page 118. Ziyarat al Qubur by al Barakawi al Hanafi, page 52. Majalis al Abrar by al Rumi al Hanafi with Khazinat al Asrar by Subhan Bakhsh al Hindi al Hanafi, page 130. Nafais al Azhar by al Surti al Hanafi, page 161, quoted from Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah, page 657. Islah al Masajid by al Qasimi, page 52. Al Qawl al Sadid by al Saadi, page 53. Fatawa Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, volume 5, page 120. Abd al Razzaq narrated in the chapter “al Maqam”, hadith 8957, and in “Mention of wiping the Maqam”, hadith 1005, with an authentic chain on the condition of al Bukhari and Muslim, from Ibn Jurayj who said: I said to Ata: Have you seen anyone kiss the Maqam or touch it?
He said: As for anyone who is considered, no. Ata ibn Abi Rabah is from the great Tabiin, and he taught in al Masjid al Haram, so this shows agreement of the Companions and the Tabiin ulama that it is not legislated. If it were legislated, they would have rushed to it.
Al Azraqi narrated, volume 2, page 29, and al Tabari in his Tafsir of verse 125 of Surah al Baqarah, hadith 2000, with an authentic chain on the condition of al Bukhari and Muslim, from Qatadah ibn Diamah, that he said about the meaning of وَاتَّخِذُوا مِن مَقَامِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ مُصَلًّى “And take the standing place of Ibrahim as a place of prayer”: They were only commanded to pray near it, and they were not commanded to wipe it.
This ummah has burdened itself with something that the nations before did not burden themselves with. Imam al Nawawi said in his Manasik, the fifth chapter, page 397: The Maqam of Ibrahim is not kissed and not touched, because it is bidah. Ibn Hajar al Haytami said in his commentary: Kissing and touching are acts of worship sought at the Black Stone, so they are not established for other than it except with a text. Then he mentioned what is established for the Yemeni corner, meaning wiping it, and he said nothing is established for the Maqam.)
What also enters this is seeking blessing from stones or soil of virtuous places by rubbing oneself with it, or gathering it and keeping it.
What also proves the forbiddance of seeking blessing from virtuous things in a way not found in the Sharia is what is established in Sahih al Bukhari from Umar ibn al Khattab, Allah be pleased with him, that he said when he kissed the Black Stone: “I know you are a stone, you do not harm and you do not benefit. If I had not seen the Prophet ﷺ kissing you, I would not have kissed you.” This clearly shows that kissing the Black Stone is only following the Prophet ﷺ, so the Muslim does it as worship of Allah Most High, following the best of creation, and it is not from tabarruk in itself. (See the earlier words of Mulla Ali al Qari al Hanafi explaining this.)
If this is the case regarding the Black Stone, which is the best part of the Kabah, then other virtuous places and things are even more so. The Muslim worships Allah in them only by what is in the Sharia, and he does not add to it.
It is also established from Ibn Abbas, Allah be pleased with them both, the alim of the ummah and the interpreter of the Quran, that he rejected the one who touched all four corners of the Kabah, because the Prophet ﷺ only touched the Black Stone and the Yemeni corner. Al Bukhari narrated it. It is also established from Abd Allah ibn al Zubayr, Allah be pleased with them both, that he rejected wiping the standing place of Ibrahim. (Sahih al Bukhari, chapter “Whoever did not touch except the two corners”, hadith 1608. Ahmad narrated it in volume 1, page 217 in a longer form, and in it Muawiyah said to Ibn Abbas: You have spoken the truth. Abd al Razzaq narrated in the chapter “al Maqam”, hadith 8958, with an authentic chain, that Ibn al Zubayr saw people wiping the Maqam and he forbade them and said: You were not commanded to wipe, rather you were commanded to pray. Ibn Abi Shaybah narrated it in “Wiping the Maqam”, volume 4, page 61)
At the end of this topic, meaning bidah tabarruk (seeking blessing), I say: This type of tabarruk is from the greatest causes that lead to falling into major shirk that removes a person from Islam. So when some Muslims disobeyed Allah Most High by doing bidah tabarruk, it led many of them to fall into major shirk, either by falling into shirk tabarruk itself, or by falling into another type of major shirk.
Ibn Ishaq, the author of al Maghazi, and others narrated what shows that the cause of the Arabs falling into shirk was honouring the stones of the Haram of Makkah and seeking blessing from them. (See al Sirah by Ibn Hisham, the story of Amr ibn Luhayy, volume 1, page 77. Also al Sirah by Ibn Kathir, the section on the children of Ismail, volume 1, page 117, quoting Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Ishaq and al Kalbi also mentioned that the mushrikin of Jahiliyyah used to wipe idols and seek blessing from them. See al Sirah by Ibn Hisham, volume 1, page 81, and al Asnam by al Kalbi, page 48.)
Abu Ishaq al Shatibi al Maliki said when speaking about tabarruk: Common people do not stop at a limit in this. Rather, they go beyond limits and exaggerate in their ignorance in seeking blessing, until their seeking blessing includes honour for what they seek blessing from that goes beyond the proper limit. So they may believe about it what is not in it. This tabarruk is the root of worship, and because of it Umar, Allah be pleased with him, cut the tree under which the Prophet ﷺ was pledged to, rather it was the root of worshipping idols in earlier nations as the people of Sirah mentioned. This also shows the forbiddance of all types of forbidden tabarruk. (Al Itisam, volume 2, page 9. Ibn al Haj al Maliki said, as quoted in Islah al Masajid, page 101: The reason why the ulama disliked wiping the mushaf, the minbar, the walls, and similar things is that this was the cause that led to worshipping idols. See also Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, pages 757, 758, and 776. Al Hukm al Jadira bil Idhaah, page 55. Al Taysir and al Qawl al Sadid, chapter “Whoever sought blessing from a tree or stone”. Al Din al Khalis, volume 2, page 250. Fatawa Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, volume 1, pages 102 and 104. Al Shirk wa Mazahiruh by al Mayli al Jazairi, page 99. Juhud Ulama al Hanafiyyah, pages 621 to 682.)
Tashil al Aqidah al Islamiyyah by Abdullah al Jibrin, p 289-313
The first matter
Innovative tabarruk with the Prophet ﷺ after his death
Among innovative tabarruk with the Prophet ﷺ after his death is tabarruk with his grave.
Among the clearest forms of tabarruk with his grave ﷺ are the following.
Asking the Messenger ﷺ for duaa or shafaah at his grave
This action is from the types of unlawful tawassul (seeking a means), by the Messenger ﷺ. Tawassul is legislated and beneficial only during his life ﷺ, and as for his shafaah on the Day of Judgement.
Ibn Taymiyyah said, explaining the ruling of making duaa at the Prophet’s grave: He does not stand at the grave to make duaa for himself, because this is a bidah. None of the Sahabah used to stand there making duaa for themselves. Rather, they used to face the qiblah and make duaa in his masjid.
Majmu al Fatawa (26/147)
Ibn Taymiyyah also said: The prophets before him did not legislate any of that. Rather, the People of the Book have no transmitted report from the prophets about that, just as the Muslims have no transmitted report from their Prophet ﷺ about that. None of his Companions, nor those who followed them with excellence, did this.
None of the imams of the Muslims regarded it as recommended, neither the four imams nor others.
None of the imams mentioned, whether in the rites of Hajj or elsewhere, that it is recommended for anyone to ask the Prophet ﷺ at his grave to intercede for him, or to make dua for his ummah, or to complain to him about what has come upon his ummah of hardships in the matters of this life and the religion.
His Companions were tested with many kinds of hardship after his death. Sometimes with drought, sometimes with shortage of provision, sometimes with fear and the strength of the enemy, and sometimes with sins and acts of disobedience.
Yet none of them would come to the grave of the Messenger ﷺ, nor the grave of Ibrahim the Close Friend, nor the grave of any of the prophets, and say: We complain to you about the drought of the times, or the strength of the enemy, or the many sins.
Nor would he say: Ask Allah for us, or for your ummah, that He provide for them, or grant them victory, or forgive them. Rather, this and what is similar to it are newly introduced innovations that none of the imams of the Muslims regarded as recommended. So it is neither obligatory nor recommended, by agreement of the imams of the Muslims.
Majmu al Fatawa, (1/161)
As for asking the Messenger ﷺ after his death for a need, or seeking help from him to remove a distress and the like, then this is shirk with Allah Most High.
Ibn Taymiyyah said: As for the first point, it is not possible for anyone to say that the Prophet ﷺ legislated for his ummah that they should seek help from a dead person, whether a prophet or anyone else, whether to bring a benefit or to push away a harm, neither with these exact words nor with the meaning.
So it is not legislated for them to call upon a dead person, or to ask him, or to call others to him, or to seek protection through him, or to call upon him in fear or in hope. No one should say to a dead person: I am under your care, or I am in your protection, or I want you to do such and such.
Nor should anyone walk steps to the grave of a dead person, then face the direction of his grave and ask him, as many Christians do, and those who resemble Christians from within this ummah do, with many of their shaykhs and others besides their shaykhs. Nor is it legislated for anyone to say to a dead person: Ask Allah for me, or make dua for me.
Nor is it legislated for them to complain to a dead person, so one of them says to him while complaining: I have a debt, or so and so harmed me, or the enemy has come upon us, or I am ill, or I am afraid, and other complaints like that, whether the one asking is at the grave of the dead person or far from it, and whether the dead person is a prophet or someone else.
Rather, it is not legislated for his ummah, if one of them has a need, to head towards the grave of a prophet or a righteous person and make dua for himself, thinking that dua at his grave will be answered.
al Radd ala al Bakri (1/269)
He also said: Whoever reports from Malik that he allowed asking the Messenger or other than him after their death, or reports that from an imam from the imams of the Muslims other than Malik, like al Shafii and Ahmad and others, then he has lied upon them. But some ignorant people نقل this from Malik and rely on a fabricated story about Malik. Even if it were authentic, the tawassul in it would not be this, rather it would be tawassul by his shafaah on the Day of Judgement. But some people distort its report, and its origin is weak.
Al Qadi Iyad did not mention this in his book in the chapter on visiting his grave. Rather, he mentioned there what is well known from Malik and his companions.
He only mentioned it while speaking about the fact that the sanctity of the Prophet ﷺ after his death, and showing respect for him and honouring him, is required, just as it was during his life. The same applies when his name is mentioned, and when his hadith, and his Sunnah, are mentioned, and when his name is heard.
He mentioned from Malik that he was asked about Ayyub al Sakhtiyani, and he said: I have not told you about anyone except that Ayyub is better than him. He said: He performed Hajj twice, and I used to watch him closely, and I did not hear anything from him except that when the Prophet ﷺ was mentioned, he would cry until I felt mercy for him. So when I saw from him what I saw, and his great respect for the Prophet ﷺ, I wrote narrations from him.
Musab ibn Abdullah said: When Malik mentioned the Prophet ﷺ, his colour would change and he would bend forward, until that became hard upon those sitting with him. It was said to him one day about that, and he said: If you had seen what I saw, you would not object to what you see. I used to see Muhammad ibn al Munkadir, and he was the leader of the reciters, and we would hardly ask him about a hadith at all except that he would cry until you felt mercy for him.
I used to see Jafar ibn Muhammad, and he used to make a lot of supplication and smile often, but when the Prophet ﷺ was mentioned in his presence, his colour would turn yellow. I never saw him narrate from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ except while he was in a state of purity. I kept coming to him for a period of time, and I would only see him in one of three states: either praying, or fasting, or reciting the Quran. He would not speak about what did not concern him, and he was from the ulama and the worshippers who fear Allah.
I used to see Abd al Rahman ibn al Qasim, when he mentioned the Prophet ﷺ, his colour would be seen as if the blood had drained from him, and his tongue would become dry in his mouth, out of respect for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
I used to come to Amir ibn Abdullah ibn al Zubayr, and when the Prophet ﷺ was mentioned in his presence, he would cry until there were no tears left in his eyes.
I saw al Zuhri, and he was from the most cheerful of people and the closest of them, but when the Prophet ﷺ was mentioned in his presence, it was as if he did not know you and you did not know him.
I used to come to Safwan ibn Sulaym, and he was from the devoted worshippers who strive hard, and when the Prophet ﷺ was mentioned, he would cry and continue crying until people would stand up from around him and leave him.
All of this was transmitted by al Qadi Iyad from the well known books of Malik’s companions. Then he mentioned a report with a strange disconnected chain, which he narrated from more than one person by ijazah.
They said: Abu al Abbas Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Dallahat narrated to us, he said: Abu al Hasan Ali ibn Fihr narrated to us, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al Farah narrated to us, Abu al Hasan Abdullah ibn al Muntab narrated to us, Yaqub ibn Ishaq ibn Abi Israil narrated to us, Ibn Humayd narrated to us, he said: Abu Jafar, the Amir al Muminin, debated Malik in the masjid of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Malik said to him: O Amir al Muminin, do not raise your voice in this masjid, for Allah taught manners to a people and said:
لَا تَرْفَعُوا أَصْوَاتَكُمْ فَوْقَ صَوْتِ النَّبِي “Do not raise your voices above the voice of the Prophet.” (al Hujurat: 2)
And He praised a people and said:
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَغُضُّونَ أَصْوَاتَهُمْ عِندَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ
“Indeed those who lower their voices in the presence of the Messenger of Allah.” (al Hujurat: 3).
And He blamed a people and said: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُنَادُونَكَ مِن وَرَاءِ الْحُجُرَاتِ “Indeed those who call you from behind the rooms.” (al Hujurat: 4).
And his sanctity when dead is like his sanctity when alive. Abu Jafar then became calm and humble, and he said: O Abu Abdullah, should I face the qiblah and make dua, or should I face the Messenger of Allah ﷺ? Malik said: Why would you turn your face away from him when he is your means, and the means of your father Adam عليه السلام, to Allah on the Day of Judgement? Rather, face him and seek his intercession, and Allah will grant you intercession. Allah said:
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذْ ظَلَمُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ جَاءُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا اللَّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُوا اللَّهَ تَوَّابًا رَحِيمًا
“If, when they wronged themselves, they came to you, and asked Allah for forgiveness, and the Messenger asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah accepting of repentance and merciful.” (al Nisa: 64)
I say: This story is disconnected, because Muhammad ibn Humayd al Razi did not meet Malik, especially in the time of Abu Jafar al Mansur. Abu Jafar (d. 158 AH), and Malik (d.179 AH). Muhammad ibn Humayd al Razi died in the year 248 AH, and he did not leave his town when he travelled to seek knowledge except when he was already older, together with his father. Along with that, he is weak according to most of the people of hadith.
Abu Zurah and Ibn Warah said he was a liar. Salih ibn Muhammad al Asadi said: I have not seen anyone more daring towards Allah than him, nor more skilled in lying than him. Yaqub ibn Shaybah said: He narrates many reports that are rejected.
Al Nasai said: He is not trustworthy. Ibn Hibban said: He narrates flipped reports, alone, from trustworthy narrators. The last person to narrate al Muwatta from Malik was Abu Musab (d. 242 AH). The last person to narrate from Malik in absolute terms was Abu Hudhayfah Ahmad ibn Ismail al Sahmi (d. 259 AH). In the chain there are also people whose condition is not known.
This story was not mentioned by any of Malik’s well known companions who took knowledge from him. Muhammad ibn Humayd is weak with the people of hadith even when he gives an attached chain, so what about when he sends a story with no chain that is not known except through him, even if it is established from him.
Malik’s companions agree that by a report like this, a statement from Malik in a fiqh issue is not established. Rather, if the Syrians narrate from him, like al Walid ibn Muslim and Marwan ibn Muhammad al Tattari, they consider the narrations of these people weak.
They only rely on the narrations of the people of Madinah and Egypt. So what about a story that goes against his well known madhhab in many ways, narrated by one man from Khurasan who did not meet him, and who is weak with the people of hadith.
Along with that, his words, “He is your means, and the means of your father Adam عليه السلام, to Allah on the Day of Judgement,” only shows the tawassul of Adam and his offspring through him on the Day of Judgement.
This is tawassul through his intercession on the Day of Judgement, and this is true, as the authentic hadiths came with it, that when the people come to Adam on the Day of Judgement for him to intercede for them, Adam directs them to Nuh, then Nuh directs them to Ibrahim, and Ibrahim to Musa, and Musa to Isa, and Isa directs them to Muhammad ﷺ.
He said: “I am the master of the children of Adam on the Day of Judgement, and no pride. Adam and those below him will be under my banner on the Day of Judgement, and no pride.” But it still goes against Malik’s well known madhhab in many ways.
One of those ways is his saying: Should I face the qiblah and make dua, or should I face the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and make dua? Then he said: Why would you turn your face away from him when he is your means and the means of your father Adam.
It is well known from Malik and other imams, and from the early Muslims from the Companions and the Tabiin, that when a person makes salam to the Prophet ﷺ, then wants to make dua for himself, he faces the qiblah and makes dua in his masjid.
He does not face the grave and make dua for himself. Rather, he only faces the grave when making salam to the Prophet ﷺ and when making dua for him. This is the view of most of the ulama, such as Malik in one of the narrations from him, and al Shafii, and Ahmad, and others.
According to the companions of Abu Hanifah, one does not face the grave at the time of salam either.
Then among them are those who said he puts the room on his left, as Ibn Wahb narrated from Malik, and he gives salam to him.
Among them are those who said rather he turns his back to the room and gives salam to him, and this is what is well known among them. Along with this, Malik disliked that a person stands for long at the grave because of that.
Al Qadi Iyad said in al Mabsut, from Malik, he said: I do not think he should stand at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ making dua, rather he gives salam and moves on. He said: Nafi said: Ibn Umar used to give salam at the grave. I saw him a hundred times or more, he would come to the grave and say: Peace be upon the Prophet ﷺ, peace be upon Abu Bakr, peace be upon my father, then he would leave. He was also seen placing his hand on the seat of the Prophet ﷺ on the minbar, then putting it on his face.
He said: It is narrated from Ibn Abi Qusayt and al Qanabi that the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, when the masjid was empty, would touch the pomegranate shaped knob of the minbar that is on the side facing the grave with their right hands, then they would face the qiblah and make dua.
He said: In al Muwatta, in the narration of Yahya ibn Yahya al Laythi, Ibn Umar used to stand at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ and send prayers upon the Prophet ﷺ and upon Abu Bakr and Umar. In the narration of Ibn al Qasim and al Qanabi: and he would make dua for Abu Bakr and Umar. Malik said in the narration of Ibn Wahb: He says, Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and Allah’s mercy and blessings. And in al Mabsut: and he gives salam to Abu Bakr and Umar.
Abu al Walid al Baji said: In my view, he makes dua for the Prophet ﷺ using the wording of prayers upon him, and for Abu Bakr and Umar using the wording of salam, because of the difference in the hadith of Ibn Umar.
This dua explains the dua mentioned in the narration of Ibn Wahb. Malik said in the narration of Ibn Wahb: When he gives salam to the Prophet ﷺ and makes dua, he stands with his face towards the grave, not towards the qiblah, and he comes close and gives salam, and he does not touch the grave. This is the salam to him, and the dua for him by sending prayers upon him, as the explanation mentioned earlier showed.
Likewise, every dua that his companions mentioned, as Ibn Habib mentioned in al Wadihah and others. He said: Malik said in al Mabsut: It is not required for the people of Madinah, when they enter the masjid and when they leave, to stop at the grave. That is only for strangers. He also said: There is no problem for the one who comes from a journey, or goes out on a journey, to stop at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ and send prayers upon him and make dua for him and for Abu Bakr and Umar.
It was said to him: Some people of Madinah, who do not come from travel and do not intend travel, do this once or more each day, and they might stand on Friday, or on some days once or twice or more, by the grave, giving salam and making dua for a while. Malik said: This has not reached me from the people of fiqh in our town.
Leaving it is broad and allowed. The later part of this ummah will not be set right except by what set right the first part of it. It has not reached me from the first part of this ummah and its early generation that they used to do this. He disliked it except for the one who comes from travel or intends it.
Ibn al Qasim said: I saw the people of Madinah, when they left it, or entered it, they would come to the grave and give salam.
Abu al Walid al Baji said: So he made a difference between the people of Madinah and strangers, because the strangers came intending that, while the people of Madinah live there and did not come because of the grave and the salam.
He said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: O Allah, do not make my grave an idol that is worshipped. Allah’s anger becomes severe upon a people who take the graves of their prophets as places of prayer. He said: The Prophet ﷺ also said: Do not make my grave an eid that is repeatedly returned to.
He said: From the book of Ahmad ibn Shubah, about the one who stands by the grave, he does not cling to it, and he does not touch it, and he does not stand there for a long time. And in al Utbiyyah, meaning from Malik: He begins with bowing before giving salam in the masjid of the Prophet ﷺ. The most beloved place for voluntary prayer in it is the prayer place of the Prophet ﷺ by the perfumed pillar. As for the obligatory prayer, then going forward to the rows is better. He said: Voluntary prayer in it for strangers is more beloved than voluntary prayer in houses.
This is the view of Malik and his companions, and what they transmitted from the Companions shows that they did not intend the grave except for giving salam to the Prophet ﷺ and making dua for him. Malik disliked standing for long because of that, and he disliked that the people of Madinah do it whenever they enter the masjid and whenever they leave it. Rather, this is only done by strangers, and by the one who comes from travel or goes out for travel, because it is a greeting to the Prophet ﷺ.
As for when a man intends to make dua for himself, then he makes dua in his masjid facing the qiblah, as they mentioned that about the companions of the Prophet ﷺ. It was not transmitted from any of the Companions that he did that at the grave. Rather, none of them even stood for long at the grave to make dua for the Prophet ﷺ, so how could he make dua there for himself.
Majmu al Fatawa (1/225-232)
He also said in the next page:
As for calling upon the Messenger ﷺ, asking him for needs, and asking for his intercession at his grave or after his death, none of the Salaf did this. It is well known that if intending supplication at the grave had been legislated, the Companions and the Tabiin would have done it. The same applies to asking through him. So how much more would it be impossible to call upon him and ask him after his death.
This shows that what is in that disconnected story, from the words “Face him and seek intercession through him”, is a lie attributed to Malik. It goes against his statements, and against the statements and actions of the Companions and the Tabiin, which Malik and his companions followed, and which the rest of the ulama and reported.
Not one of them would face the grave to make supplication for himself, let alone face it and seek intercession through him by saying: O Messenger of Allah, intercede for me, or make dua for me, or complain to him about the hardships of religion and worldly life, or ask him, or ask any other dead person from the prophets and the righteous, or ask angels whom they do not see, to intercede for him, or complain to them about hardships.
All of this is from the actions of the Christians and other polytheists, and those who resemble them from the innovators of this ummah. This was not from the actions of the earliest forerunners from the Muhajirin and the Ansar, and those who followed them with excellence. Nor is it something that any of the imams of the Muslims commanded, even though they would give salam to him, since he hears the salam of the one who is near, and the salam of the one who is far is conveyed to him.
Majmu al Fatawa, (1/233), also see Kashf al Shubuhat by Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, p 51.
Ibn Abd al Hadi said: All of the Salaf agree that the visitor does not ask him for anything, and does not request from him what is requested from him in his life and what will be requested from him on the Day of Judgement, not shafaah, not seeking forgiveness, and not other than that.
al Sarim al Munki, p 138
Abdullah Aba Butayn said: As for the impossibility of asking him for duaa after his death, in the Sharia, then it is because the Sahabah, and they are more knowledgeable of Allah and His Messenger than those after them, did not come to his grave ﷺ asking him to make duaa for them, or to ask for rain for them, or to seek victory for them, because they knew this is not possible after his death. None of them came to ask him for a fatwa at his grave in the many matters that were difficult for them.
Umar said: “Three things I wished I had asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about.” And he sought rain by al Abbas, and did not come to his grave ﷺ to seek rain for them. People used to come to the Mother of the Believers Aishah to ask her for fatwa at his grave ﷺ. Yet he would hear them, and would answer them if they asked him, according to the claim of the extremists.
This is impossible. Rather, they were forbidden from seeking out making duaa to Allah at his grave ﷺ. When Ali ibn al Husayn saw a man coming to an opening at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ and entering and making duaa, he forbade him and said: Shall I not narrate to you a hadith I heard from my father from my grandfather from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He said: Do not take my grave as an eid, and do not make your houses graves, for your salam reaches me wherever you are. (It was narrated by Ibn Abi Shaybah (7624) with slight difference, and Abu Yala (469), and al Diya in al Ahadith al Mukhtarah (428), and its wording is theirs, from the hadith of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Al Sakhawi graded it hasan in al Qawl al Badi (228), and Muhammad ibn Abd al Hadi strengthened it in al Sarim al Munki (206), and Ibn Taymiyyah said in al Ikhna’iyyah (346): from good routes that support one another.)
al Durar al Saniyyah, (12/179).
Ibn Baz said: The hadiths about this meaning are many. They include his masjid ﷺ and other masjids, before the expansion and after it. It is authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ that he used to urge his Companions to keep to the right side of the rows. It is known that the right side of the row in his first masjid was outside the Rawdah.
From this it becomes clear that giving care to the first rows and the right sides of the rows comes before giving care to the noble Rawdah, and that keeping to these is more important than trying to pray in the Rawdah. This is very clear for whoever reflects on the hadiths that came about this topic. Allah is the One who grants success.
It is not allowed for anyone to wipe themselves on the chamber, or kiss it, or go around it, because that was not transmitted from the righteous Salaf. Rather, it is a rejected innovation.
It is not allowed for anyone to ask the Messenger ﷺ to fulfil a need, or remove a hardship, or cure a sick person, and similar things, because all of that is only asked from Allah, Glorified and Exalted. Asking it from the dead is shirk with Allah and worship of other than Him. The religion of Islam is built on two foundations.
The first is that none is worshipped except Allah alone.
The second is that none is worshipped except by what Allah and the Messenger ﷺ legislated.
This is the meaning of the testimony that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah, and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Likewise, it is not allowed for anyone to ask the Messenger ﷺ for intercession, because intercession belongs to Allah, Glorified and Exalted, so it is only asked from Him, as Allah Most High said:
قل لله الشفاعة جميعا
Say: All intercession belongs to Allah. (al Zumar: 44)
So you say: O Allah, accept the intercession of Your Prophet, O Allah, accept the intercession of Your angels and Your believing servants, O Allah, accept the intercession of my children who died young, and similar words. As for the dead, nothing is asked from them, neither intercession nor anything else, whether they are prophets or not, because that was not legislated, and because the dead person’s deeds have come to an end except what the Lawgiver made an exception for.
In Sahih Muslim, from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When the son of Adam dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: a continuing charity, or knowledge that people benefit from, or a child…”
Majmu Fatawa Ibn Baz, (16/104-105).
Liqa al Bab al Maftuh, number 75
Doing some acts of worship at the Prophet’s grave
Abu al Abbas al Qurtubi said: And regarding his ﷺ statement: “Those people, when a righteous man among them died, they built a masjid over his grave and made those images”.
The shaykh said: The first of them only did that so they could feel comfort by seeing that image, and so they would remember, through it, their righteous states, and so they would strive like their striving, and worship Allah at their graves. So ages passed for them upon that.
Then after them came later generations who did not understand their aims, and Shaytan whispered to them that their fathers and grandfathers used to worship these images and venerate them, so they worshipped them.
So the Prophet ﷺ warned against that, and he made the denunciation and the threat very severe against doing that, and he blocked the means that lead to that.
So he ﷺ said: “Allah’s anger became severe against a people who took the graves of their Prophets as masjids, so do not take graves as masjids” (Narrated by Malik in al Muwatta (1/172), from the hadith of Ata ibn Yasar, may Allah be pleased with him.)
Meaning: I forbid you from that. And he ﷺ said: “Allah cursed the Jews and the Christians, they took the graves of their Prophets and their righteous people as masjids” (Bukhari 3453).
Because of this, the Muslims went very far in blocking the means at the grave of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
So they raised the walls of his burial area, and they sealed the entrances to it, and they made it enclosed around his grave. Then they feared that the place of his grave might be taken as a qiblah, since it would be facing the people praying, so prayer towards it could be imagined in the form of worshipping it.
So they built two walls from the two northern corners of the grave, and they angled them until they met at a triangular corner from the north side, so that no one would be able to face his grave directly. (This description matches the position of the noble grave in the author’s time. Then it was changed in the Mamluk period, then the Ottoman period, until the grave became inside a square chamber above which is the Green Dome. So whoever prays behind the chamber is not facing the grave because there is a barrier.)
Because of all that we mentioned, Aishah said: “If not for that, his grave would have been made visible.”
Al-Mufhim lima Ashkala min Talkhees Kitaab Muslim (2/127).
Ibn Taymiyyah said: The second level is that he thinks duaa at his grave is answered, or that it is better than duaa in masajid and houses, so he intends to visit him for that, or for prayer there, or to ask his needs from him. This is also from the rejected new matters by agreement of the imams of the Muslims. It is prohibited, and I do not know any disagreement among the imams of the religion.
al Radd ala al Bakri, (1/114).
Ibn Taymiyyah also said: It has been established by the Sunnah and by the agreement of the ummah that everything done from righteous deeds in the masjid by his chamber, such as sending prayers upon him, giving salam, praising him, and showing honour, and mentioning his good virtues and his merits, can be done in all other places as well.
The person who does that will receive the reward he deserves. This is as he ﷺ said: “Do not take my house as an Eid, and send prayers upon me, for your prayers reach me wherever you are.”
If deeds done at the grave had a special virtue, then the door of the chamber would have been opened for the Muslims. But when they were prevented from reaching the grave, and they were commanded to worship in the masjid, it became known that the virtue of the deed there is because it is in his masjid.
This is just as a prayer in his masjid is better than a thousand prayers elsewhere. And he ﷺ never commanded that a person should intend a righteous deed in order to do it at his grave.
Majmu al Fatawa, (27/236-237).
Touching the grave, wiping it, kissing it, and the like
Wiping the wall of the grave of the Messenger ﷺ by hand or other than it, or kissing it, hoping for good and blessing and the like, is a sign of bidah and a means leading to shirk.
Khalil al Maliki said: Ibn Wahb narrated in al Mukhtasar: Malik was asked, from where does the one who wants to give salam stand. He said: from the corner that is nearest to the qiblah from the side of the minbar, and he faces the qiblah, and I do not like that he touches the grave with his hand.
al Tawdhih fi Sharh Mukhtasar Ibn al Hajib, (2/101).
Al Zafarani said:
Wafa al Wafa, (4/215-216).
Ihya Ulum al Din, (1/271)
ولا يتمسح بقبر النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم، ولا يمسح كذلك المنبر
One does not wipe the grave of the Prophet ﷺ, and one does not wipe the minbar either.
Abd al Qadir al Jilani said: When a person visits a grave, he should not place his hand on it, and he should not kiss it, because that is the practice of the Jews. He should not sit on it, and he should not lean on it, and he should not step on it, unless he is forced to do so. R ather, he should stand where he would stand if the person were alive, and he should show respect to him as if he were alive. He should recite eleven times:
قل هو الله أحد
Say: He is Allah, One. (al Ikhlas: 1)
and he recites other parts from the Quran, then he gifts the reward (thawab) of that recitation to the person in the grave. He does this by saying: O Allah, if You have kept me firm upon reciting this surah, then I have gifted its reward to the person in this grave. Then he asks Allah for his need in dua.
al Ghunyah, p 91
Nasir al Din al Samiri al Hanbali said: Then he comes to the masjid of the Messenger ﷺ, and when he enters he says: In the name of Allah. O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, and open for me the doors of Your mercy, and keep away from me the doors of Your punishment.
All praise is for Allah who allowed us to reach this blessed place, and made us worthy of it. And all praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds.
He puts forward his right foot when entering.
Then he goes to the wall by the grave, but he does not touch it and he does not press his chest against it, because that is the practice of the Jews.
Al Athram said: That is from the actions of Jahiliyyah (the time of ignorance).
al Mustawib, (1/524).
Abu Shamah al Maqdisi al Shafii said:
al Baith ala Inkar al Bida wal Hawadith, p 95.
Al Nawawi said: It is not allowed to walk around the Prophet’s grave ﷺ. It is disliked to press the back or the stomach against the wall of the grave. Abu Ubayd Allah al Halimi and others said this. They also said it is disliked to wipe it with the hand and to kiss it. Rather, proper manners (adab) are that a person keeps some distance from it, just as he would keep some distance from him if he were present in his life ﷺ. This is the correct view which the ulama said and agreed upon. A person should not be fooled by many ordinary people going against this and doing it.
Following the truth and acting upon it is only by the authentic hadiths and the sayings of the ulama. No attention should be given to innovations of ordinary people and others, or to their ignorant actions.
And from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Do not make my grave an object of worship, and send prayers upon me, for your prayers reach me wherever you are.” (Abu Dawud, with an authentic chain)
Al Fudayl ibn Iyad (may Allah have mercy on him) said, with this meaning: Follow the paths of guidance, and the small number of people who follow them will not harm you.
Beware of the paths of misguidance, and do not be fooled by the large number of those who are ruined. Whoever thinks that wiping with the hand and similar actions bring more blessing, then this comes from his ignorance and his heedlessness, because blessing is only in what agrees with the Sharia. So how could there be any virtue in going against what is correct.
al Majmu, (8/275)
Ibn Taymiyyah said: As for graves, it is narrated that the Prophet ﷺ forbade taking them as masjids, and he cursed those who do that. More than one of the Sahabah and the Tabiin mentioned this.
Al Bukhari mentioned it in his Sahih, and al Tabarani and others mentioned it in their tafsir works. Wathimah and others mentioned it in “Stories of the Prophets”, when explaining the saying of Allah:
وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا
“They said: Do not leave your gods, and do not leave Wadd, nor Suwa, nor Yaghuth, nor Ya uq, nor Nasr.” (Nuh: 23)
They said: These were the names of righteous people from the people of Nuh. When they died, the people stayed devoted at their graves. Then a long time passed, and they made statues of them into idols. Staying devoted at graves, wiping over them, kissing them, making dua at them and inside them, and similar acts, is the root of shirk (associating partners with Allah) and idol worship. Because of this, the Prophet ﷺ said: “O Allah, do not make my grave an idol that is worshipped.”
The ulama agreed that whoever visits the grave of the Prophet ﷺ, or the grave of any of the prophets and the righteous, including the Sahabah, the Ahl al Bayt, and others, does not wipe over it and does not kiss it. Rather, there is nothing from lifeless things in this life that it is legislated to kiss except the Black Stone.
It is established in al Bukhari and Muslim that Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: By Allah, I know that you are a stone that does not harm and does not benefit. If I had not seen the Messenger of Allah ﷺ kiss you, I would not have kissed you.
Because of this, it is not Sunnah, by agreement of the imams, that a man kisses or touches the two corners of the House that are not the corner of the Black Stone, nor the walls of the House, nor Maqam Ibrahim, nor the Rock of Bayt al Maqdis, nor the grave of any prophet or righteous person. The fuqaha even differed about placing the hand on the minbar of our master, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when it used to exist. Malik and others disliked it because it is a bidah.
It is mentioned that when Malik saw Ata doing that, he did not take knowledge from him. Ahmad and others allowed it because Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) did it.
But as for wiping over the Prophet’s grave ﷺ and kissing it, all of them disliked that and forbade it. That is because they understood what the Prophet ﷺ meant by blocking the paths that lead to shirk, establishing tawhid, and keeping the religion purely for Allah, Lord of all creation.
Majmu al Fatawa, (27/78-80).
He also said: The ulama said: whoever visits the grave of the Prophet ﷺ does not touch it, and does not kiss it, and the house of the creation is not made like the House of the Creator which is touched and kissed at the Black Stone, and the Yemeni corner is touched. For this reason the ulama agreed that it is not legislated to kiss any stone nor touch it except the two Yemeni corners. Even Maqam Ibrahim in Makkah is not kissed and not wiped, so what about other places and shrines.
Majmu al Fatawa, (3/274).
al Subki al Shafii said: As for wiping the grave, kissing it, prostrating there, and similar actions, only some ignorant people do that. Whoever does that should have his action rejected and condemned, and he should be taught the proper manners (adab) of visiting.
But he is not condemned for the visit itself, nor for travelling to it. Rather, even though he has fallen into ignorance, he is praised for visiting and for travelling, but he is blamed for his ignorance and his bidah.
As for seeking needs at his grave, we will mention that in the chapter on seeking help (istighathah) through the Prophet ﷺ.
Shifa al Siqam fi Ziyarat Khayr al Anam, p 312
Abu al Baqa Muhammad al Diya al Makki al Hanafi said: It is not from the Sunnah that he touches the wall or kisses it. Standing from a distance is closer to respect. From the manners is that he does not raise his voice in salam, and he does not touch the grave with his hand, and he does not stand at the grave for long.
al Bahr al Amiq fi Manasik al Mutamir wal Haj ila Bayt Allah al Atiq, (5/2900).
al Amr bil Ittiba wal Nahi an al Ibtida, p 185
Qutb al Din al Nahrwani al Hanafi said: Imam Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated in his Musnad, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both), that he said:
From the Sunnah is that you come to the grave of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from the side of the qiblah, and you place your back towards the qiblah, and you face the grave with your face. Then you say: Peace be upon you, O Prophet, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
It is not from the Sunnah to touch the wall or to kiss it. Rather, standing at a distance is closer to respect and good manners.
And from proper manners is that a person does not raise his voice when giving salam, he does not touch the grave with his hand, and he does not stand for a long time at the grave.
It is not from the Sunnah that he touches the wall or kisses it.
Tarikh al Madinah, p 192
Marai ibn Yusuf al Hanbali said: Know that kissing graves, and similar actions, and wiping over them, is only disliked (makruh). The imams were only very strict about it because they feared that people would start treating it as worship (ibadah) and as a means of drawing near to Allah (qurbah), as some ordinary people might think.
If that happens, then the prohibition and stern warning becomes stronger, especially regarding a person of knowledge, or someone people follow, if he does that in front of ordinary people, because they might think from his action that it is Sunnah.
Shifa al Sudur fi Ziyarat al Mashahid wal Qubur, p 42
Al Buhuti al Hanbali said: He does not wipe the grave of the Prophet ﷺ, nor its wall, and he does not press his chest to it, and he does not kiss it.
Bughyat al Nasik fi Ahkam al Manasik, p 127
Ahmad ibn Muhammad al Tahtawi al Hanafi (d. 1231 AH) said: His saying: “For men”, meaning that men are the ones being addressed here. They should intend by visiting the graves the Face of Allah Most High, the reform of the heart, and benefiting the dead person through what is recited at his grave from the Quran.
He should not touch the grave and he should not kiss it, because that is from the practice of the People of the Book. Touching and kissing has not been known as an act of worship except for the Black Stone.
Hashiyat al Tahtawi ala Maraqi al Falah Sharh Nur al Idah p 620
Innovative tabarruk with places where the Prophet ﷺ sat or prayed after his death
The places in which the Prophet ﷺ prayed or stood in another act of worship are of two types.
Places where the Prophet ﷺ intended worship because of the place itself
These are places it is legislated to seek out and intend, following the Prophet ﷺ and seeking reward.
Ibn Taymiyyah said: What the Prophet ﷺ did as worship is worship, and it is legislated to follow him in it. If he set apart a time or place for worship, then setting it apart with that worship is Sunnah, like his setting apart the last ten nights with itikaf, and like his setting apart Maqam Ibrahim with prayer there. So following him is to do what he did, in the way he did.
Majmu al Fatawa, (10/409).
Ibn Taymiyyah also said: As for the places where the Prophet ﷺ used to choose to pray or to make dua, then choosing to pray there or to make dua there is Sunnah, following the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and taking him as an example. In the same way, if a person chooses to pray or to make dua at a certain time, then choosing to pray or to make dua at that time is Sunnah, like his other acts of worship and all the actions he did to draw near to Allah.
An example of this is what al Bukhari and Muslim recorded in the Sahihayn from Yazid ibn Abi Ubayd, who said: Salamah ibn al Akwa used to choose to pray by the pillar that is near the place where the Mushaf was kept.
So I said to him: O Abu Muslim, I see you choose to pray by this pillar.
He said: I saw the Prophet ﷺ choose to pray by it.
In the narration of Muslim from Salamah ibn al Akwa, it says that he used to choose to pray at the place of the Mushaf, making tasbih there, and he mentioned that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to choose that place. And between the minbar and the qiblah there was about the space a sheep passes through.
Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, (2/276).
Places where the Prophet ﷺ worshipped without intending the place itself
Ibn Taymiyyah said: As for deliberately choosing to pray, make dua, or do acts of worship in a place where the prophets did not choose to pray and worship, but it is only narrated that they passed by it, stopped there, or lived there, then as mentioned earlier neither Ibn Umar nor others used to do that.
That is because there is no following them in it. It is not following them in an act they did, nor in an aim they intended. It is well known that the places where the Prophet ﷺ used to stay were either during travel or during residence, such as his routes in his Hajj and his expeditions, his stopping places during his journeys, and his houses in which he used to live, and the houses he would sometimes go to.
As for the Prophet’s clear texts, they require the prohibition of taking their graves as masjids, even though they are buried there, and they are alive in their graves. Visiting their graves to give salam is recommended, yet despite that it is forbidden to go to them for prayer at them and to take them as masjids.
It is well known that this was only forbidden because it is a means that leads to shirk. He wanted the masjids to be purely for Allah Most High, built only for His worship, with no created being being shared with Him in that.
So if a masjid is built for the sake of a dead person, it is unlawful. The same applies if it is built for another trace or relic, because the shirk is present in both places.
Because of this, the Christians used to build churches over the grave of a prophet or a righteous man, and also over his trace, and in his name. This is what Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) feared might happen among the Muslims, and it is what the Prophet ﷺ intended to prevent his ummah from falling into. Allah Most High said:
وَأَنَّ الْمَسَاجِدَ لِلَّهِ فَلَا تَدْعُوا مَعَ اللَّهِ أَحَدًا
“And the masjids belong to Allah, so do not call upon anyone along with Allah.” (al Jinn: 18)
And Allah Most High said:
قُلْ أَمَرَ رَبِّي بِالْقِسْطِ وَأَقِيمُوا وُجُوهَكُمْ عِندَ كُلِّ مَسْجِدٍ وَادْعُوهُ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ
“Say: My Lord has commanded justice. So direct your faces at every masjid, and call upon Him, making the religion sincerely for Him.” (al Araf: 29)
And Allah Most High said:
مَا كَانَ لِلْمُشْرِكِينَ أَن يَعْمُرُوا مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ شَاهِدِينَ عَلَى أَنفُسِهِم بِالْكُفْرِ أُولَئِكَ حَبِطَتْ أَعْمَالُهُمْ وَفِي النَّارِ هُمْ خَالِدُونَ
إِنَّمَا يَعْمُرُ مَسَاجِدَ اللَّهِ مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَأَقَامَ الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَى الزَّكَاةَ وَلَمْ يَخْشَ إِلَّا اللَّهَ فَعَسَى أُولَئِكَ أَن يَكُونُوا مِنَ الْمُهْتَدِينَ
“It is not for the mushrikin to maintain the masjids of Allah while bearing witness against themselves to disbelief. Those, their deeds are wasted, and in the Fire they will remain forever. The ones who maintain the masjids of Allah are only those who believe in Allah and the Last Day, establish the prayer, give the zakah, and fear none except Allah. Perhaps those will be among the guided.” (al Tawbah: 17 to 18)
If this had been recommended, then it would have been recommended for the Companions and the Tabiin to pray in every room of his wives, and in every place he stopped in during his expeditions and journeys.
It would also have been recommended that they build masjids in those places. But the Salaf did not do any of that.
Allah Most High did not legislate for the Muslims any place that is deliberately aimed for prayer except the masjid, and no place that is deliberately aimed for worship except the sacred rites (masha’ir).
So the rites of Hajj, such as Arafah, Muzdalifah, and Mina, are aimed for dhikr, dua, and takbir, not for prayer, unlike masjids, because masjids are the places that are aimed for prayer. There is no place that is deliberately aimed in itself except the masjids and the sacred rites. Prayer and ritual worship are in them. Allah Most High said:
قُلْ إِنَّ صَلَاتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَبِذَلِكَ أُمِرْتُ
“Say: My prayer, my worship, my living, and my dying are for Allah, Lord of the worlds. He has no partner, and that is what I was commanded.” (al Anam: 162 to 163)
As for all other places, it is not recommended to deliberately aim for a specific spot for prayer, or dua, or dhikr, because the Sharia of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ did not come with aiming for them for that purpose, even if it was a home of a prophet, or a stopping place, or a route he travelled.
The religion is based on following the Prophet ﷺ and agreeing with him by doing what he commanded, what he legislated for us, and what he made as Sunnah for us. We follow him in the actions that he legislated for us to follow him in, unlike what was from his special matters.
As for an action that he did not legislate for us, and did not command us with, and did not do in a way that made it a Sunnah for us to follow him in it, then this is not from acts of worship and not from ways of drawing near to Allah. Making that into a means of drawing near is going against him ﷺ. As for what he did from permitted matters (mubah) without intending worship, then it is allowed for us to do it as permitted, just as he did it as permitted.
But is it legislated for us to make it into worship and a means of drawing near to Allah? There are two views about that, as mentioned earlier. Most of the Salaf and the ulama held that we do not make it into worship and a means of drawing near.
Rather, we follow him in it like this: if he did it as something permitted, we do it as something permitted, and if he did it as a means of drawing near to Allah, we do it as a means of drawing near. Whoever made it into worship thought that this is part of fully following him and resembling him, and he thought there is blessing in that because it has a special connection to him.
Majmu al Fatawa, (27/502 – 504).
Ibn Taymiyyah said: So it is necessary to distinguish between following the Prophet ﷺ and taking him as an example in what he actually did as Sunnah, and between inventing an innovation that he did not make Sunnah, simply because it is connected to him.
The ulama differed about a case where the Prophet ﷺ did a permitted action (mubah) for a specific reason, and then we do the same action to resemble him, even though that reason is no longer present. Some of them say it is recommended, and some of them say it is not recommended.
On this basis, the action of Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) can be understood. The Prophet ﷺ used to pray in those places on his route because they were places where he stayed. He did not deliberately choose prayer in them because of any special meaning in the place itself. So the example of this is that a traveller prays in the place where he stays, and this is Sunnah.
But deliberately choosing to pray in those exact places where he happened to pray by coincidence, this was not transmitted from any of the Companions except Ibn Umar. Rather, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, and the rest of the earliest forerunners from the Muhajirin and the Ansar, used to go from Madinah to Makkah for Hajj, for Umrah, and for travel, and it was not transmitted from any of them that they deliberately chose to pray in the prayer places of the Prophet ﷺ.
It is well known that if they had seen this as recommended, they would have been the first to do it, because they knew his Sunnah better and followed it more closely than others.
He ﷺ said: “You must follow my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs after me. Hold on to it and bite onto it with your molar teeth. Beware of newly introduced matters, for every newly introduced matter is a bidah, and every bidah is misguidance.” (It was narrated by Abu Dawud (4607), al Tirmidhi (2676), and Ibn Majah (42) with slight difference, from al Irbad ibn Sariyah. Al Tirmidhi graded it sound, and al Bazzar as mentioned in Jami Bayan al Ilm wa Fadlih by Ibn Abd al Barr (2/1164), and Ibn Hibban in his Sahih (5).)
Seeking out prayer in those places is not from the Sunnah of the Rightly Guided Caliphs. Rather, it is something that was introduced later. The statement of one Sahabi is not a proof if another Sahabi like him disagrees with him. So what about when he is alone in it against the great majority of the Sahabah.
Also, seeking out prayer in those places is a means that leads to taking them as masjids, and it is resembling the People of the Book in something we were forbidden to resemble them in. This then becomes a means that leads to shirk with Allah.
The Lawgiver blocked this path by forbidding prayer at sunrise and at sunset, and by forbidding taking graves as masjids. So if He forbade prayer that is legislated, in a certain place and at a certain time, to block the means, then how could it be recommended to aim for prayer and dua in a place where they happened to stand, or happened to pray, without intending that place for prayer and dua.
If this were allowed, then it would be recommended to aim for Mount Hira and pray there, and to aim for Mount Thawr and pray there, and to aim for places where it is said that prophets stood, like the two stations on the road to Mount Qasiyun in Damascus, which people claim are from the station of Ibrahim and Isa, and the station which people claim is the cave of the blood of Qabil, and similar places in the Hijaz, the Sham, and elsewhere.
Then this leads to the same corruption that graves led to. People start saying: this is the station of a prophet, or the grave of a prophet, or of a wali, based on a report where the speaker is not known, or based on a dream whose reality is not known.
Then they build on that and turn it into a masjid, until it becomes an idol worshipped besides Allah Most High. Shirk built on a lie. Allah Most High joins shirk and lying together in His Book, just as He joins truthfulness and sincerity together.
Because of this, the Prophet ﷺ said in the authentic hadith: “False testimony has been made equal to shirk with Allah,” and he repeated it three times. Then he recited the saying of Allah Most High:
فَاجْتَنِبُوا الرِّجْسَ مِنَ الْأَوْثَانِ وَاجْتَنِبُوا قَوْلَ الزُّورِ حُنَفَاءَ لِلَّهِ غَيْرَ مُشْرِكِينَ بِهِ
“So avoid the filth of idols, and avoid false speech, turning purely to Allah, not associating partners with Him.” (al Hajj: 30 to 31)
Allah Most High also said:
وَيَوْمَ يُنَادِيهِمْ فَيَقُولُ أَيْنَ شُرَكَائِيَ الَّذِينَ كُنتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ وَنَزَعْنَا مِن كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ شَهِيدًا فَقُلْنَا هَاتُوا بُرْهَانَكُمْ فَعَلِمُوا أَنَّ الْحَقَّ لِلَّهِ وَضَلَّ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ
“And on the Day He will call them and say: Where are My partners whom you used to claim. And We will pull out from every nation a witness, then We will say: Bring your proof. Then they will know that the truth belongs to Allah, and what they used to invent will be lost from them.” (al Qasas: 62 and 75)
And Allah Most High said about the Close Friend Ibrahim عليه السلام:
إِذْ قَالَ لِأَبِيهِ وَقَوْمِهِ مَاذَا تَعْبُدُونَ أَإِفْكًا آلِهَةً دُونَ اللَّهِ تُرِيدُونَ
“When he said to his father and his people: What do you worship. Do you want, as a lie, gods besides Allah.” (as Saffat: 85 to 86)
And Allah Most High said:
وَلَقَدْ جِئْتُمُونَا فُرَادَى كَمَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ أَوَّلَ مَرَّةٍ وَتَرَكْتُم مَّا خَوَّلْنَاكُمْ وَرَاءَ ظُهُورِكُمْ وَمَا نَرَى مَعَكُمْ شُفَعَاءَكُمُ الَّذِينَ زَعَمْتُمْ أَنَّهُمْ فِيكُمْ شُرَكَاءُ لَقَد تَقَطَّعَ بَيْنَكُمْ وَضَلَّ عَنكُم مَّا كُنتُمْ تَزْعُمُونَ
“And you have come to Us alone, just as We created you the first time, and you left behind what We granted you, behind your backs. And We do not see with you your intercessors whom you claimed were partners concerning you. The ties between you have been cut off, and what you used to claim has gone away from you.” (al Anam: 94)
And Allah Most High said:
تَنْزِيلُ الْكِتَابِ مِنَ اللَّهِ الْعَزِيزِ الْحَكِيمِ إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ فَاعْبُدِ اللَّهَ مُخْلِصًا لَهُ الدِّينَ أَلَا لِلَّهِ الدِّينُ الْخَالِصُ وَالَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُوا مِن دُونِهِ أَوْلِيَاءَ مَا نَعْبُدُهُمْ إِلَّا لِيُقَرِّبُونَا إِلَى اللَّهِ زُلْفَى إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَحْكُمُ بَيْنَهُمْ فِي مَا هُمْ فِيهِ يَخْتَلِفُونَ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَهْدِي مَنْ هُوَ كَاذِبٌ كَفَّارٌ
“The sending down of the Book is from Allah, the Mighty, the Wise. We sent down the Book to you with the truth, so worship Allah, making the religion sincerely for Him. Truly, the pure religion belongs to Allah. And those who take protectors besides Him say: We only worship them so that they bring us near to Allah in closeness. Allah will judge between them about what they differ in. Allah does not guide the one who is a liar and a stubborn disbeliever.” (az Zumar: 1 to 3)
Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, (2/277-280).
The Salaf and those after them condemned this type of tabarruk.
It is narrated from Nafi that people used to go to the tree, so Umar cut it down.
Ibn Waddah said: Malik ibn Anas and other ulama of Madinah used to dislike going to those masjids and those traces connected to the Prophet ﷺ, except for one masjid, Quba.
Ibn Waddah said: I heard them mention that Sufyan al Thawri entered the Masjid of Bayt al Maqdis and prayed in it, but he did not follow those traces, nor did he seek out praying in them. Others who are followed also did the same. Waki also came to the Masjid of Bayt al Maqdis, and he did not do what Sufyan did.
Ibn Waddah said: So hold firmly to following the imams of guidance who are well known. Some of those who came before said: How many matters are well known today to many people, but they used to be rejected by those before them.
A person may try to make Allah love him by something that makes Allah dislike him, and he may try to draw near to Him by something that actually takes him further away. Every bidah has decoration and attraction on it.
al Bida wal Nahi Anha, p 50
Ibn Taymiyyah said: As for what he did by coincidence and did not intend, like he stops somewhere and prays there because he stopped there, not intending to single it out for prayer and staying, then if we intend to single out that place for prayer or staying, we are not following him. Rather, this is from bidah that Umar ibn al Khattab used to forbid. It is established with an authentic chain from the hadith of Shubah from Sulayman al Taymi from al Marur ibn Suwayd. He said: Umar ibn al Khattab was travelling and prayed Fajr, then he passed by a place and people began to come to it and say: the Prophet ﷺ prayed here.
Umar said: The People of the Book were destroyed because they followed the traces of their prophets and took them as churches and places of worship. Whoever the prayer time comes upon him should pray, otherwise he should move on. When the Prophet ﷺ did not intend to single it out for prayer there, rather he prayed there because it was where he stopped, Umar saw that sharing the image of the action without agreeing with him in intention is not following. Rather, singling out that place for prayer is from the bidah of the People of the Book by which they were destroyed, and he forbade the Muslims from imitating them in that.
Majmu al Fatawa, (1/280).
Preventing this tabarruk also comes to block the means to shirk and fitnah, and taking those traces as masajid, and blocking the means to imitating the People of the Book in their actions (al Tabarruk Anwa’uhu wa Ahkamuhu by Nasir al Jadi, p 339). See also (Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim by Ibn Taymiyyah, 2/279), and (Ighathat al Lahfan by Ibn al Qayyim, 1/370).
Ibn Taymiyyah said: Tawassul through the prophets and the righteous happens in two ways. The first is by obeying them and following them.
The second is by their dua and their shafaah (intercession). So merely making dua “by them”, while a person does not obey or follow them, does not benefit him, even if the rank of one of them is great with Allah Most High. There is no benefit for him, and no intercession for him from them.
These matters have been explained in detail in other places.
The point here is this: if the Salaf and the imams spoke about asking by means of a created being in the way already mentioned, then what about asking a created being who is dead. This includes asking the dead person to ask Allah, or asking the dead person to fulfil a need, and other things that some people do, whether at the grave of the dead person or while being far away from him.
The Prophet ﷺ stopped this matter and closed the doors that lead to it. He cursed those who take the graves of the prophets and the righteous as masjids. He warned that prayer should not be done at them. Worship is only for Allah, and asking is only from Allah.
He warned his ummah about this. So what about when the very harm that is feared actually happens, meaning shirk and the causes that lead to shirk. The discussion about praying at graves and taking them as masjids has already been mentioned.
It has become clear that none of the Salaf used to do this, except what was transmitted from Ibn Umar: that he used to deliberately stop at the places where the Prophet ﷺ stopped, and pray in the places where the Prophet ﷺ prayed, to the extent that the Prophet ﷺ made wudu and poured the extra water from his wudu at the base of a tree.
So Ibn Umar did that too. This from Ibn Umar was a deliberate effort to do the same actions. He intended to do the same as him in where he stopped, where he prayed, where he poured the water, and other similar things. Ibn Umar did not intend prayer and dua in those places just because of the places themselves.
Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, (2/330).
Ibn Taymiyyah also said: The second issue is that a person deliberately chooses that specific spot to pray at it, even though it is not a time of prayer. Rather, he wants to start a prayer and dua because of that spot itself.
This was not transmitted from Ibn Umar, nor from anyone else. Even if some people claim that Ibn Umar did that, it is established from his father Umar that he forbade that. It is also transmitted widely from the Muhajirin and the Ansar that they were not doing that. So it is not possible for the action of Ibn Umar, even if he did it, to be a proof against his father and against the Muhajirin and the Ansar.
The third issue is that the spot is not even on a person’s route, rather he turns away from his route to reach it, or he travels to it for a short journey or a long one, like someone who goes to Hira to pray there and make dua, or he goes to the Tur where Allah spoke to Musa to pray there and make dua, or he travels to other places besides these, from mountains and other than mountains, which people claim have stations of prophets or others, or a shrine built over a trace of one of the prophets, like what used to be built over his sandal, and like what is on Mount Qasiyun, and Mount al Fath, and Mount Tur Zayta which is in Bayt al Maqdis, and other places like this.
This is something that everyone who knows the condition of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and the condition of his Companions after him, knows that they were not aiming for any of these places.
Mount Hira, which is the tallest mountain in Makkah, used to be visited by Quraysh before Islam, and they used to worship there. Because of this Abu Talib said in his poetry:
“And one who rises to climb in Hira, and one who comes down.”
It is established in the Sahih from Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that she said: The first thing that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ began with from revelation was the truthful dream. He would not see a dream except that it came like the clear light of dawn. Then solitude became beloved to him, so he used to go to the cave of Hira, and he would do tahannuth there, meaning worship, for a number of nights.
Then he would return and take provision for that again, until the revelation suddenly came to him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him and said: Recite. He said: I am not one who recites. He said: So he took hold of me and pressed me until I was exhausted, then he released me, then he said: Recite. I said: I am not one who recites. He said that two or three times, then he said:
اقْرَأْ بِاسْمِ رَبِّكَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ خَلَقَ الْإِنسَانَ مِنْ عَلَقٍ اقْرَأْ وَرَبُّكَ الْأَكْرَمُ الَّذِي عَلَّمَ بِالْقَلَمِ عَلَّمَ الْإِنسَانَ مَا لَمْ يَعْلَمْ
“Recite in the name of your Lord who created. He created man from a clot. Recite, and your Lord is the Most Generous. He taught by the pen. He taught man what he did not know.” (al Alaq: 1 to 5)
Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned with it while his shoulders were trembling, and the hadith continues in full length.
So his tahannuth and worship in the cave of Hira was before the mission. Then when Allah honoured him with prophethood (nubuwwah) and messengership (risalah), and Allah made it obligatory on creation to believe in him, obey him, and follow him, he remained in Makkah for more than ten years, he and those who believed in him from the earliest Muhajirin, who are the best of creation. Yet neither he nor any of his Companions would go to Hira.
Then he migrated to Madinah and performed four Umrahs. The Umrah of al Hudaybiyyah, when the mushrikin prevented him from reaching the House.
Al Hudaybiyyah is on your right as you head towards Makkah when you pass al Tan im near the masjids that people say are the masjids of Aishah, and the mountain that is on your right is called Mount al Tan im, and al Hudaybiyyah is to its west. Then the next year he performed Umrah al Qadiyyah. He entered Makkah with many of his Companions and they stayed there three days.
Then when he opened Makkah, he went towards Hunayn and al Taif to the east of Makkah. He fought Hawazin in the valley of Hunayn, then he laid siege to the people of al Taif. He distributed the spoils of Hunayn at al Jiranah, then he came with an Umrah from al Jiranah to Makkah.
Then he performed his fourth Umrah together with Hajj al Wada (the Farewell Hajj). The great majority of the Muslims performed Hajj with him. None stayed back from Hajj with him except whom Allah willed.
In all of that, neither he nor any of his Companions would come to the cave of Hira, nor visit it, nor any of the places around Makkah. Worship was only in al Masjid al Haram, and between al Safa and al Marwah, and in Mina, and Muzdalifah, and Arafat. He prayed Zuhr and Asr at the bottom of Uranah, and the tent was set up for him on the Day of Arafah at Namirah, which is next to Arafah.
Then after him, his Rightly Guided Caliphs (al khulafa al rashidun) and others from the earliest forerunners were not travelling to the cave of Hira and similar places to pray there and make dua.
The same applies to the cave mentioned in the Quran in the saying of Allah Most High:
ثَانِيَ اثْنَيْنِ إِذْ هُمَا فِي الْغَارِ
“The second of two, when they were in the cave.” (al Tawbah: 40)
This is a cave in Mount Thawr, to the south of Makkah. It was not legislated for his ummah to travel to it, visit it, pray in it, or make dua in it.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not build any masjid in Makkah besides al Masjid al Haram. Rather, all those other masjids are newly introduced innovations, the masjid of the birthplace and others. He also did not legislate for his ummah the visit of the place of the birth, nor the visit of the place of the pledge at al Aqabah behind Mina, even though a masjid has been built there.
Iqtida al Sirat al Mustaqim, (2/331-334).
Innovative tabarruk with the Prophet ﷺ after his death by the alleged footprint
There exists in some lands what is called the footprint of the Messenger ﷺ, stones with a footprint, and some people claim it is the foot of the Messenger ﷺ. They seek blessing with it by wiping and kissing and looking and making duaa there and other than that. This action is false from two angles.
First, that its authenticity is not established with reliable proofs. It is only rumours that gained widespread fame. A number of verifying people of knowledge rejected its authenticity.
Ibn Taymiyyah said: What some ignorant people mention about it, that there is the footprint of the Prophet ﷺ there, and the trace of his turban, and other things, all of that is a lie. Even worse than that is the one who thinks it is the place of the foot of Allah. Likewise, the place that is mentioned as being the cradle of Isa عليه السلام is a lie.
Rather, it was only the place where the Christians used to do baptism. The same applies to the one who claims that the sirat and the mizan are there, or that the wall which will be placed between Jannah and Jahannam is that built wall on the east side of the masjid. Likewise, venerating the chain, or its supposed place, is not legislated.
Majmu al Fatawa, (27/13).
Ibn al Qayyim said: Every hadith about the rock is a lie invented. The foot that is in it is a lie and fabricated, made by the hands of forgery makers who promote it so that the number of visitors increases.
al Manar al Munif, p 87
مَسْأَلَةٌ: فِيمَا هُوَ جَارٍ عَلَى أَلْسِنَةِ الْعَامَّةِ، وَفِي الْمَدَائِحِ النَّبَوِيَّةِ: أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لَانَ لَهُ الصَّخْرُ، وَأَثَّرَتْ قَدَمُهُ فِيهِ، وَأَنَّهُ كَانَ إِذَا مَشَى عَلَى التُّرَابِ لَا تُؤَثِّرُ قَدَمُهُ فِيهِ، هَلْ لَهُ أَصْلٌ فِي كُتُبِ الْحَدِيثِ أَوْ لَا؟ وَهَلْ إِذَا وَرَدَ فِيهِ شَيْءٌ مَنْ خَرَّجَهُ؟ وَصَحِيحٌ هُوَ أَوْ ضَعِيفٌ؟ وَهَلْ مَا ذَكَرَهُ الْحَافِظُ شمس الدين بن ناصر الدين الدمشقي فِي مِعْرَاجِهِ الَّذِي أَلَّفَهُ مُسَجَّعًا، وَلَفْظُهُ: ثُمَّ تَوَجَّهَ نَحْوَ صَخْرَةِ بَيْتِ الْمَقْدِسِ وَعَمَّاهَا، فَصَعِدَ مِنْ جِهَةِ الشَّرْقِ أَعْلَاهَا، فَاضْطَرَبَتْ تَحْتَ قَدَمِ نَبِيِّنَا، وَلَانَتْ، فَأَمْسَكَتْهَا الْمَلَائِكَةُ لَمَّا تَحَرَّكَتْ وَمَالَتْ؟ أَلِهَذَا أَيْضًا أَصْلٌ فِي كُتُبِ الْحَدِيثِ صَحِيحٌ أَوْ ضَعِيفٌ، أَوْ لَا؟ وَهَلْ هَذَا الْأَثَرُ الْمَوْجُودُ الْآنَ بِصَخْرَةِ بَيْتِ الْمَقْدِسِ الْمَعْرُوفُ هُنَاكَ بِقَدَمِ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ صَحِيحٌ أَوْ لَا؟ وَهَلْ وَرَدَ فِي كُتُبِ الْحَدِيثِ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا إِبْرَاهِيمَ – عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا وَعَلَيْهِ أَفْضَلُ الصَّلَاةِ وَالسَّلَامِ – أَثَّرَتْ قَدَمَاهُ فِي الْحَجَرِ الَّذِي كَانَ يُبْنَى عَلَيْهِ الْبَيْتُ، الَّذِي هُوَ الْآنَ بِالْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ بِالْمَكَانِ الْمَعْرُوفِ بِمَقَامِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ، هَلْ هُوَ صَحِيحٌ أَوْ ضَعِيفٌ، أَوْ لَيْسَ لَهُ أَصْلٌ؟ وَهَلْ مَا قَالَهُ بَعْضُهُمْ أَنَّهُ لَمْ يُعْطَ نَبِيٌّ مُعْجِزَةً إِلَّا حَصَلَ لِنَبِيِّنَا صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مِثْلُهَا أَوْ لِأَحَدٍ مِنْ أُمَّتِهِ صَحِيحٌ ذَلِكَ أَوْ لَا؟ وَمَنْ هُوَ قَائِلُ ذَلِكَ؟ وَهَلْ صَحَّ أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لَمَّا جَاءَ إِلَى بَيْتِ أَبِي بَكْرٍ الصِّدِّيقِ بِمَكَّةَ وَوَقَفَ يَنْتَظِرُهُ أَلْزَقَ مَنْكِبَهُ وَمِرْفَقَهُ بِالْحَائِطِ فَغَاصَ الْمِرْفَقُ فِي الْحَجَرِ وَأَثَّرَ فِيهِ وَبِهِ سُمِّيَ الزُّقَاقُ بِمَكَّةَ زُقَاقَ الْمِرْفَقِ أَوْ لَيْسَ لِذَلِكَ أَصْلٌ؟ وَهَلْ مَا ذَكَرَهُ الثعلبي وَالطَّرْطُوشِيُّ فِي تَفْسِيرَيْهِمَا، أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لَمَّا حَفَرَ الْخَنْدَقَ وَظَهَرَتِ الصَّخْرَةُ وَعَجَزَتِ الصَّحَابَةُ عَنْ كَسْرِهَا نَزَلَ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ إِلَى الْخَنْدَقِ وَضَرَبَهَا ثَلَاثَ ضَرَبَاتٍ وَأَنَّهَا لَانَتْ لَهُ وَتَفَتَّتْ صَحِيحٌ ذَلِكَ أَوْ ضَعِيفٌ أَوْ لَيْسَ لَهُ أَصْلٌ مُعْتَمَدٌ؟ وَهَلْ إِذَا ثَبَتَ أَنَّ الصَّخْرَ لَانَ لَهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَأَثَّرَتْ قَدَمُهُ فِيهِ يَكُونُ ذَلِكَ مُعْجِزَةً لَهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَوْ لَا؟
He answered:
الْجَوَابُ: أَمَّا حَدِيثُ الصَّخْرَةِ الَّتِي ظَهَرَتْ فِي الْخَنْدَقِ وَعَجَزَ الصَّحَابَةُ عَنْ كَسْرِهَا وَضَرَبَهَا ثَلَاثَ ضَرَبَاتٍ فَكَسَرَهَا، فَإِنَّهُ صَحِيحٌ وَرَدَ مِنْ طُرُقٍ بِأَلْفَاظٍ مُتَعَدِّدَةٍ فَأَخْرَجَهُ الْبَيْهَقِيُّ وأبو نعيم مَعًا فِي دَلَائِلِ النُّبُوَّةِ مِنْ حَدِيثِ عمرو بن عوف المزني، وَمِنْ حَدِيثِ سَلْمَانَ الْفَارِسِيِّ، وَمِنْ حَدِيثِ الْبَرَاءِ بْنِ عَازِبٍ، وَأَصْلُهُ فِي الصَّحِيحِ مِنْ حَدِيثِ جابر قَالَ: «إِنَّا يَوْمَ الْخَنْدَقِ نَحْفِرُ فَعَرَضَتْ كُدْيَةٌ شَدِيدَةٌ فَجَاءُوا إِلَى النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَقَالُوا: هَذِهِ كُدْيَةٌ عَرَضَتْ فِي الْخَنْدَقِ فَأَخَذَ الْمِعْوَلَ فَضَرَبَ فَعَادَ كَثِيبًا أَهْيَلَ» ، وَأَمَّا قَوْلُهُ: هَلْ وَرَدَ فِي كُتُبِ الْحَدِيثِ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا إِبْرَاهِيمَ – عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا وَعَلَيْهِ أَفْضَلُ الصَّلَاةِ وَالسَّلَامِ – أَثَّرَتْ قَدَمَاهُ فِي الْحَجَرِ الَّذِي كَانَ يُبْنَى عَلَيْهِ الْبَيْتُ وَهُوَ الْمَقَامُ؟ فَنَعَمْ، وَرَدَ ذَلِكَ، أَخْرَجَهُ الأزرقي فِي تَارِيخِ مَكَّةَ مِنْ طَرِيقِ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ الْخُدْرِيِّ عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ سَلَامٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا مَوْقُوفًا عَلَيْهِ بِسَنَدٍ صَحِيحٍ، وَأَخْرَجَهُ عَبْدُ بْنُ حُمَيْدٍ فِي تَفْسِيرِهِ عَنْ قَتَادَةَ، وَأَخْرَجَهُ أَيْضًا عَنْ عكرمة، وَبَقِيَّةُ مَا ذُكِرَ فِي الْأَسْئِلَةِ لَمْ أَقِفْ لَهُ عَلَى أَصْلٍ وَلَا سَنَدٍ وَلَا رَأَيْتُ مَنْ خَرَّجَهُ فِي شَيْءٍ مِنْ كُتُبِ الْحَدِيثِ.
al Hawi lil Fatawi, (2/128-129).
Innovative tabarruk with the place of the Prophet’s ﷺ birth after his death
The ulama and historians differed regarding identifying the place of his birth ﷺ. There are no authentic proofs that specify this location with certainty.
The traveller al Ayyashi said: It is known from the books of sirah that there is disagreement about his birth ﷺ, whether it was in Makkah or al Abwa. If it was in Makkah, it was said in the valley, and it was said at al Muhassab, and other opinions.
It is amazing that they specified a place inside a house the size of a sleeping place and said: this is the place of his birth ﷺ.
It is very far, in my view, that this could be specified by an authentic or weak route, because of the disagreement about whether it was in Makkah or elsewhere, and if in Makkah, which valley, and if the valley is specified, then which house, and if the house is specified, then it is very far to specify the exact place within the house after the passing of eras and the cutting off of traces.
al Rihlah al Ayyashiyyah, (1/234)
The disagreement of ulama and historians in specifying the place of his birth ﷺ is evidence that the Sahabah did not give attention to this matter, because no Sharia action depends on it. Otherwise their agreement on a known place would have been transmitted, like the places of the rituals of Hajj are known. Even if knowing the place of his birth ﷺ were authentic, it would not be permissible to seek blessing with it.
Claiming that he ﷺ prayed on the night of al Isra in Bayt Lahm because it is the place of the birth of Isa, peace be upon him, is not a sound proof, because it is not established from the Prophet ﷺ. Even if it were established, it is not proof for the permissibility of praying at the place of the Prophet’s ﷺ birth for tabarruk and seeking reward, because measuring in worship is not sound, because worship is tawqifi (restricted to what is legislated).
