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Originally Posted by Hanbali

Nobody said anything against visiting the graveyard. Rather, our discussion was about the issue of making a pilgrimage to visit a grave. The ahadeeth you have posted do not support your argument that it is permissible to make pilgrimage to visit a grave. Rather, we say that it is permissible to visit a grave if one is in the area already, such as when Prophet Muhammad (s) passed by his mother's grave WHILST on the way to another place.

In regards to visiting the grave, then we say that this falls into two categories, the permissible and the forbidden:

The Permissible:

This is to visit the graves in order to make du`a FOR the deceased, praying for mercy for them, remembering death, and preparing oneself for the Hereafter.

The Forbidden:

This is to visit the graves in order to for the purpose of calling upon their occupants, seeking their help, offering sacrifices to them and making vows to them. This is forbidden and is a major form of shirk (shirk akbar) or leads to shirk. Connected to this is the practice of visiting graves to offer du'a, asking THEM to make du`as for us, perform salah and read Quran there. This is all bid'ah and is not prescribed in Islam.

With regard to praying (performing salah) at a grave, then the only prayer that is permitted is salat al-janaazah, not fardh or naafil prayers which are forbidden to pray. And it is known that salat al-janaazah differs from other prayers, in that we do not do ruku, sajdah, etc.

You are just getting technical with the terms. The prophet also said you could pray just about anywhere on earth. Taking the time and the effort to go to someone's grave and believing that it is going to have an effect on the dua's you make while praying at the grave site is the issue.