What is your comment on those who argue for the permissibility of seeking blessing from the Chamber and its walls using what is reported from Thabit al-Bunani regarding seeking blessing?

The questioner : The translation by Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Mu'min al-Qazwini, who spoke, cited a statement regarding the permissibility of seeking blessing from the Chamber and its walls. What is your comment on what he cited?

The Shaykh : From whom?

The questioner : From Thabit al-Bunani.

The Shaykh: Who?

The questioner : Thabit al-Bunani; he mentioned it as a matter of acknowledgment, as I understood it. What is your comment, may Allah preserve you?

The Shaykh : Did Ibn 'Umar follow the traces of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or not? Is that prescribed?

The questioner : It is not prescribed?

The Shaykh : Is what Thabit al-Bunani did prescribed?

The questioner : No, but Shaykh, the issue is al-Dhahabi's (may Allah have mercy on him) argument using what was done, and he was a man of the Sunnah.

The Shaykh : Al-Dhahabi is not higher in our estimation than Thabit al-Bunani, let alone 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar ibn al-Khattab. And what I said, I said it about Thabit and about 'Abd Allah, so it is also established regarding al-Dhahabi.

The questioner : May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : There is a narration with a sound chain from Ibn 'Umar himself that he disliked touching the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Take this as a rare benefit, and because of its rarity, I attached it to my old book, "Warning the Prostrator from Taking Graves as Mosques." I had mentioned there a narration from some of the later scholars similar to this, and I found it a precious treasure that I attributed to 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar with a sound chain: "that he disliked touching the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)." From this, we do not agree with Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahim al-Tahan, who has raised the issue in this time of seeking blessing from the traces of the righteous and argues for it with some of what is established from some of them after the death of the Messenger (peace be upon him). Personally, we do not deny, and there is no room for denial, from the standpoint of both narration and understanding, that a considerable number of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to seek blessing from some of his traces during his lifetime. But we differ from al-Tahan and others in that we do not expand the circle, for two reasons. First: there is a great difference between what is done to the Messenger (peace be upon him) by way of seeking blessing during his lifetime, where he can correct what the seeker of blessing may spoil, and after his death, when the Shari'ah has ended and taken its full boundaries, there is no room for such correction or clarification on that side. And on the other side, protecting the sanctity of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) over a long period of time falls under the category of sadd al-dhara'i' (blocking the means to harm), which is to close this door for those who come after him (peace be upon him). Because those who come after him, even if they are from the Tabi'un, may be those who recently embraced Islam, or they may be from the Bedouins or the non-Arabs who embrace Islam and bring with them some of their customs and traditions and apply them due to their ignorance in seeking blessing from the Messenger (peace be upon him). So closing this door is fully in line with the principle of sadd al-dhara'i' (blocking the means to harm). Therefore, we do not find this type of seeking blessing to be widespread after the death of the Messenger (peace be upon him) as it is widespread in the times that followed, especially since this seeking blessing did not stop at what was done to him (peace be upon him), but they went to extremes in it, like those words that I think you quoted from al-Tahan. What is this? This is speech... call it what you will. So if Ibn 'Umar followed the traces of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and sought blessing from them, and they were places he (peace and blessings be upon him) had trodden, and he may have prayed in some of them, nevertheless his father 'Umar was more knowledgeable than he and more aware of the consequences of things than he, and why not, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said regarding him: This is the Faruq (the one who distinguishes truth from falsehood) in truth. It is he who said, on one of his journeys when he stopped at a place and saw the people heading toward a direction, so he asked: "Where are these people going?" They said: "There is a prayer place where the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed." He said: "O people, whoever catches up with the prayer in one of these prayer places..."