The ruling on decorating mosques and placing domes on them
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
The questioner asks: What is the ruling on decorating mosques, placing domes on them, and decorating their interiors?
The Shaykh:
As for the domes, there is no harm in that, because domes are an architectural art, and every mosque benefits from them in terms of lighting, coolness, and so on. There is no harm in building domes. However, what came to the mind of the questioner or others is the domes on graves, and they assumed that all domes are not permissible. No, the intended meaning is the domes on graves, because they become shrines. As for domes that are not on graves, there is no harm in them. As for decorating mosques, this is disliked. It is disliked to decorate mosques, engrave them, or write on them, because this distracts the worshippers, removes their humility, and draws the gaze of the one entering and the worshipper to these writings, engravings, and decorations. Therefore, decorating mosques is disliked.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you and us.
The Shaykh:
And in it is imitating the Jews and the Christians in their churches, that they do so. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you.
The questioner asks: What is the ruling on decorating mosques, placing domes on them, and decorating their interiors?
The Shaykh:
As for the domes, there is no harm in that, because domes are an architectural art, and every mosque benefits from them in terms of lighting, coolness, and so on. There is no harm in building domes. However, what came to the mind of the questioner or others is the domes on graves, and they assumed that all domes are not permissible. No, the intended meaning is the domes on graves, because they become shrines. As for domes that are not on graves, there is no harm in them. As for decorating mosques, this is disliked. It is disliked to decorate mosques, engrave them, or write on them, because this distracts the worshippers, removes their humility, and draws the gaze of the one entering and the worshipper to these writings, engravings, and decorations. Therefore, decorating mosques is disliked.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you and us.
The Shaykh:
And in it is imitating the Jews and the Christians in their churches, that they do so. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 31/10 شرح كتاب التوحيد / الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (53:24)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.