Holding an ‘Urs and Travelling to Visit Graves

Question

Is it permissible to hold an ‘urs (death anniversary of a saint) or to fix a day and call people to a grave for a recitation of the Fatiha? And likewise, is it permissible to travel to the shrines of the elders for the purpose of ziyara? If the answer is in the negative, what will you reply to that narration in which the Prophet ﷺ restricted travel to visiting him, visiting Bayt al-Haram and visiting Bayt al-Maqdis?

Answer

Holding an ‘urs, or fixing a day and inviting people to a grave for a recitation of the Fatiha, is not established from the generations whose goodness has been testified to. Hazrat Mawlana Shah Muhammad Ishaq, in “Mi’a Masa’il”, declared it a forbidden bid‘a.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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