Malik answered...

Malik answered, Why do you turn your face away from him when he is your intermediary and your father Adam’s intermediary to Allah on the Day of Judgment? Turn your face towards him and ask him to be your intercessor with Allah.

Allah (Exalted is He) says, And had they, when they were unjust to themselves, come to you and asked forgiveness of Allah and the Apostle had also asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah Oft-returning to mercy, Merciful.’ (Qur’an 4:64) The author of Khulasat ul-Kalam says that this tradition was mentioned by as-Sabki in his book Shifa’us-Siqam fi Ziyarat Khayr ul-Anam, as-Samhudi in his book Khulasat ul-Wafa, al-Qastalani in his book al-Mawahib al- Laduniyya, Ibn Hajar in his books Tuhfatuz-Zuwwar and al-Jawhar ul-Munazzam and many others who wrote about the etiquette of visiting the tomb of (s).

Ibn Hajar said in his book al-Jawharul-Munazzam: This tradition, narrated by Imam Malik, came with a true source that could not be suspected. Az-Zarqani said in Sharh ul-Mawahib: The relation was narrated by Ibn Fahad from an affirmed source and by the Judge Ayyadh in his book ash-Shafa from a true source. All the narrators of this relation were reliable and no one was an inventor or liar. He added: He wanted to refute those who charged Malik that he disliked facing the Prophet’s tomb.

Ibn Hajar in his book as-Sawa’iq ul-Muhriqa said that Imam ash-Shafi’i beseeched the Prophet’s family when he composed the lines: The Prophet’s family is my excuse And my means to gain Allah’s content I hope that tomorrow (Day of Judgment) I will be given my book with my right hand By means of their honor near Allah The author of Kashf ul-Irtiyab on page 260 of the book has added; However, the supplications transmitted from the Imams of the pure Household of the Prophet which have the status of being uninterrupted transmissions (tawatur) are replete with them beseeching their grandfather (s), his pure family, through his right and theirs, and through this adjuring the Most High.

They knew more about their grandfather’s traditions and the laws of their Lord than Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Abdul-Wahhab and their followers from among the Arabs of Najd. This is because they were the gate of the city of knowledge of Muhammad (s) and the inheritors of his knowledge from whom he ordered us to learn. On page 260, he recorded: A kind of beseeching the Prophet (s) is to turn towards his honored tomb while praying.