What is your guidance regarding Ibn Taymiyyah's statement that whoever comes to the grave of a righteous man, stands by it, and asks him to supplicate to Allah for him, is not committing shirk (polytheism) but rather an innovation (bid'ah) and a forbidden form of seeking intercession (tawassul), and his distinction between being near to and far from the grave, where he considered the latter shirk by consensus, unlike the former?

Visiting graves, supplicating there, and seeking aid from their occupants fall into three categories:

1. Shirk (Polytheism): Asking the deceased for a need, such as: "Forgive me." 2. Bid'ah (Innovation): Requesting supplication from the deceased or the absent, such as: "Ask your Lord for us." The Companions and the Salaf did not do this, and it is a means leading to Shirk. 3. Makrooh (Disliked) or Forbidden: Seeking intercession through the status or sanctity of someone with Allah, such as: "O Allah, by the status of so-and-so, do such-and-such for me." The Companions did not do this; instead, they resorted to seeking intercession through the supplication of a living person.