A Shaykh Praying in a Mosque That Contains a Grave, and the Ruling Thereon
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: In our country, there is a Shaykh who leads the prayer in a mosque that contains a grave. I told him that this is not permissible, but he said that the grave is behind us and that he is not praying toward it. Is his statement correct?
Answer:
The prohibition is not specifically about having a grave in front of you. The prohibition is against praying at a grave, whether it is behind you, in front of you, or to your side. You do not pray at it. Praying at graves is prohibited. Therefore, this is a mosque in which prayer is not valid. As long as the grave is attached to it from any direction, the prayer in it is not valid, due to the prohibition of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding that, and the prohibition implies invalidity.
The Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: In our country, there is a Shaykh who leads the prayer in a mosque that contains a grave. I told him that this is not permissible, but he said that the grave is behind us and that he is not praying toward it. Is his statement correct?
Answer:
The prohibition is not specifically about having a grave in front of you. The prohibition is against praying at a grave, whether it is behind you, in front of you, or to your side. You do not pray at it. Praying at graves is prohibited. Therefore, this is a mosque in which prayer is not valid. As long as the grave is attached to it from any direction, the prayer in it is not valid, due to the prohibition of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding that, and the prohibition implies invalidity.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [217 -939] إمام يصلي في مسجد يوجد فيه قبر فأنكرت عليه، فقال إن القبر خلفنا، فما الجواب؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.