The Obligation to Respect Graveyards and the Prohibition of Building on Them or Using Them as Roads for Residential Areas

The questioner:
May Allah reward you with good and do you well. After this, a message reached the program from Yemen, signed by two sisters from there, Dhakiyyah and Huda, from the Lahij Governorate. We presented some of their questions in a previous episode, and in this meeting they ask us and say: In our town, the residents built a secondary school, but it is in a place that was a graveyard in the past. When they dug up those graves, they did not find any trace to deter them from making that place a school, and at that time they asked about such a matter, and some of them began to wonder if they were right in what they did? May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh:
Graves have their sanctity; it is not permissible to encroach upon them, because they have become the dwellings of these deceased, and they preceded to them, so they have more right to them, and it is not permissible to encroach upon graves. Rather, it is obligatory to fence them and prevent encroachment upon them, and to remove harm from them by the authorities. So the duty of those who asked this question is to approach the responsible authorities in their country, namely the Sharia court and the municipality, to request them to look into the reality of this graveyard and the encroachment that occurred upon it, to remove that and protect this graveyard from encroachment?

The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good, and may Allah reward you.

The questioner:
Is the narrowness of land, Shaykh Salih, a justification for encroaching upon graveyards?

The Shaykh:
This is not a justification, and the deceased have more right to their graves than the living, and the living go to other places. Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, has made the earth spacious, so they should go to other places where there is no injustice to anyone, neither to the living nor to the deceased. Yes.

The presenter:
May Allah reward you with good.

The questioner:
The reality is that graves are still desecrated in many countries, Shaykh Salih. Some of them are still places for roads and grazing livestock, and even for car roads. Perhaps the Shaykh has a word to say. May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh:
All of it is forbidden and a harm to the deceased Muslims, and it is obligatory to respect them and prevent encroachment upon them by walking over them with feet or cars or livestock, and to prevent building on graves, whether dwellings or otherwise. People are in a state of excess or negligence regarding graves. Some are excessive in building domes and mosques on them, and practicing shirk (associating partners with Allah) around them and at them by calling upon the deceased, seeking aid from them, and circumambulating their graves, and decorating the domes on them, and hanging curtains, and other things that mislead the common people and make them think that these graves have a special quality in bringing benefit and repelling harm. This is excess, and this is what caused the occurrence of shirk in the people of Noah when they were excessive in the righteous ones, , when they were excessive in them, it led them to taking them as lords besides Allah, Mighty and Majestic. This is the side of excess regarding graves. As for the side of negligence, it is like what the questioner mentioned of insulting graves and encroaching upon them. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade sitting on a grave and said: "If one of you sits on a burning coal and it tears his garment and penetrates his body, it is better for him than that he sits on a grave." And he (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade insulting the deceased and insulting graves, because of the encroachment upon the deceased Muslims therein. And he said: "Breaking the bone of a Muslim in death is like breaking it in life." So it is obligatory to respect Muslims, whether living or dead, in their graves, that they not be encroached upon, and that their graveyards not be made lawful to be violated, but rather they should be fenced with a wall that prevents and protects them, and from walking over them, and that filth or water leaks not be thrown upon them, or anything else; because they have a sanctity with Allah and they have a right upon their Muslim brothers to respect them, and to make du'a' (supplication) for them, and to greet them with salam when they pass by them. So this is the middle religion between excess and negligence: that graves are respected, and that they are protected from insult, and that harm is removed from them without excess regarding their owners, and without ill-treatment to them by insult.