And is visiting his grave (peace and blessings be upon him) like the rest of the graves of the Muslims?

The questioner : And is visiting his grave (peace and blessings be upon him) like the rest of the graves of the Muslims, since He taught us and guided us that visiting graves reminds us of the Hereafter and serves as a lesson for us? Or does it have another special status?

The Shaykh : There is no special status here. Visiting the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is prescribed like the graves of all other Muslims. However, we should remind those who remember that there is a difference between this issue, on which no two people differ and no two camels butt heads—namely, visiting the grave of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); it is prescribed without disagreement among the scholars of the Muslims. But this is one thing, and traveling specifically to visit the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), let alone the graves of the prophets, the awliya (close friends of Allah), and the righteous, is not permissible. This is due to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . Therefore, whoever wants to visit the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) in a lawful manner must intend to travel to gain the virtue of praying in his mosque (peace and blessings be upon him), where he said: . He must intend with his travel to go to the mosque to obtain this immense virtue. Naturally, when he arrives there, he visits his grave (peace be upon him), and visits al-Baqi', and visits the martyrs of Uhud. There is no disagreement in all of this. But the difference is between making the intention pure for traveling to pray in the mosque, or making the intention to visit the grave of the Messenger (peace be upon him). In this, there is a contradiction of this authentic hadith: .