Refuting the Fatwa Prohibiting Ziyarat of the Rawdhah of the Prophet (s.a.w.)

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The following is extracted from the works of Dr. Jibril Fu’ad Haddad.  Shaykh Taqi’ ad-Din Ahmad ibn ‘Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.) spent the years 719 to 721 CE in jail; he was jailed again in 726 CE until his death two years later amid charges of kufr for declaring it haram to travel to visit the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) maqam, stating whoever does is committing a sin and an innovation.  This particular fatwa is nonsensical, and without merit.  Imam Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mardawi (r.a.), Shaykh Abu al-Muzhaffar ‘Awn ad-Din Yahya ibn Hubayrah ash-Shaybani al-Hanbali (r.a.), and others stated that the entirety of the early and late authorities in the Hanbali madzhab stipulate the desirability of visiting the grave of the Prophet (s.a.w.) in Madina, most especially after haj, or travelling to do so.  Imam Shams ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Muflih al-Maqdisi (r.a.); Imam al-Mardawi (r.a.); and Imam Mar’i ibn Yusuf al-Maqdisi al-Hanbali (r.a.), in Ghayat al-Muntaha fi al-Jam’ bayna al-Iqna’ wa-al-Muntaha; stated visiting the graves of the pious and the permissibility of travelling to do so is without doubt.  Imam Mar’i (r.a.) reiterated this ruling in his unpublished monograph on the ethics of graves and visitation, Shifa’ asw-Swudur fi Ziyarat al-Mashahid wa al-Qubur.

This notorious fatwa was also comprehensively refuted by his contemporary, the hadits master and Shaykh al-Islam, Imam Taqi’ ad-Din Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Abd al-Kafi’ as-Subki (r.a.), in his Shifa’ as-Siqam fi Ziyarat Khayri al-An’am, “The Healing of Sickness Concerning the Visitation to the Best of Creatures”, also titled Shann al-Ghara ‘ala man Ankara as-Safar li al-Ziyarah, “The Raid against Him Who Denied the Lawfulness of Travel for the Purpose of Visitation”.  Imam Taqi’ ad-Din as-Subki (r.a.) adduced the hadits, “Whoever visits my grave, my intercession will be guaranteed for him” as proof against Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah’s (r.a.) claim that “all the ahadits that concern the merit of visitation are weak or rather forged”, and denounced Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah’s (r.a.) unprecedented fatwa as a flagrant innovation.

Shaykh al-Islam Imam Abu al-Fadhl Zayn ad-Din ‘Abd ar-Rahim ibn al-Husayn al-‘Iraqi al-Miswri (r.a.), principal teacher to Imam Shihab ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani (r.a.), said, in al-Ajwiba al-Makkiyyah, a refutation of Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah’s (r.a.) fatwa, “There is no prohibition of an act of travel in the hadits ‘Mounts are not to be saddled except to travel to three mosques’; rather, it is an emphasis on the importance of traveling to these three mosques in particular, and the emphasis becomes an obligation in case of a vow, which is not the case for a vow to pray in any mosque other than these three.”

Imam ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani (r.a.) said, in Fath al-Bari, of Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah’s (r.a.) fatwa, “This is one of the ugliest matters ever reported from him.”

In his marginalia on that work, the Wahhabi scholar, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Baz commented, “This was not an ugly thing, but a correct thing for ibn Taymiyyah to say.”  But then, what can we expect from these filthy heretics?

Imam Shihab ad-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Khafaji (r.a.) a Hanafi imam, also wrote a major commentary on Qadhi Abu al-Fadhl ‘Iyadh ibn ‘Amr’s (r.a.) ash-Shifa bi Ta’rif Huquq al-Muswthafa.  He said, of Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.), in relation to his heretical fatwa, “He imagined that he was defending monotheism with all kinds of nonsense which do not deserve mention for they do not originate from the mind of a rational person let alone an eminent one – Allah (s.w.t.) Forgive him!”

The list of scholars, both contemporaneous to Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.), and after him, who wrote refutations of this fatwa is long.  It is sufficient to say that this fatwa alone caused Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.) great grief, and was the cause of his death in prison.

The hadits, “Whoever visits my grave, my intercession will be guaranteed for him,” is a hasan narration as concluded by Imam Abu al-Hasanat’ Abd al-Hayy Muhammad al-Lakhnawi (r.a.), and his editor, Imam ‘Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah (r.a.), in the latter’s notes on Imam Malik ibn Anas’ (r.a.) al-Muwaththa’.  Some early scholars such as Imam Abu ‘Ali Sa’id ibn as-Sakan al-Baghdadi (r.a.) in as-Sunan asw-Swihah, and Imam Abu Muhammad ‘Abd al-Haqq ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman al-Ishbili (r.a.) in al-Ahkam, had declared it swahih.  Imam ‘Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili (r.a.) had followed the reasoning of Imam Taqi’ ad-Din as-Subki (r.a.) in Shifa’ as-Siqam, in view of the totality of the chain.  Other ahadits scholars who considered it authentic include Imam ibn Hajr (r.a.) Imam Shams ad-Din Muhammad ibn ‘Abd ar-Rahman as-Sakhawi (r.a.), Imam Nur ad-Din ‘Ali ibn ‘Abdullah as-Samhudi (r.a.), and Imam Shibab ad-Din Abu al-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hajr al-Haytsami (r.a.) in al-Jawhar al-Munazhzham fi Ziyarat al-Qabr ash-Sharif an-Nabawi al-Mukarram.  However, some later scholars, beginning with Shaykh ibn Taymiyyah (r.a.), remained undecided whether to grade this hadits weak or forged.

Imam al-Lakhnawi (r.a.) said, about this hadits, “There are some who declared it weak, and others who asserted that all the ahadits on visitation of the Prophet (s.a.w.) are forged, such as ibn Taymiyyah and his followers, but both positions are false for those who were given right understanding, for verification of the case dictates that the hadits is hasan, as Taqi ad-Din as-Subki has expounded in his book, Shifa’ as-Siqam.”