The Ruling on Rubbing Oneself Against the Graves of the Awliya
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
This questioner says: I am a Yemeni resident in the Kingdom. I am asking about rubbing oneself against the graves of the awliya (close friends of Allah), where people, or some people, visit a grave every year and perform specific rituals. What is the ruling?
Answer:
The ruling is that this is forbidden (haram) and not permissible, and it is shirk (associating partners with Allah), or a means to shirk. Visiting graves, whether the graves of scholars, parents, or your Muslim brothers, is recommended (mustahabb) and prescribed (mashru') for two reasons: to take heed and learn a lesson, and the second is to benefit the deceased by making du'a' (supplication) for him and sending salam upon him. This is the prescribed visitation, and it has no specific time. As for rubbing oneself against the dirt or rolling in it, this is from the practice of the jahiliyyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance), and this is shirk with Allah (Mighty and Majestic). This action is not permissible, and it is from the exaggeration regarding the dead. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
This questioner says: I am a Yemeni resident in the Kingdom. I am asking about rubbing oneself against the graves of the awliya (close friends of Allah), where people, or some people, visit a grave every year and perform specific rituals. What is the ruling?
Answer:
The ruling is that this is forbidden (haram) and not permissible, and it is shirk (associating partners with Allah), or a means to shirk. Visiting graves, whether the graves of scholars, parents, or your Muslim brothers, is recommended (mustahabb) and prescribed (mashru') for two reasons: to take heed and learn a lesson, and the second is to benefit the deceased by making du'a' (supplication) for him and sending salam upon him. This is the prescribed visitation, and it has no specific time. As for rubbing oneself against the dirt or rolling in it, this is from the practice of the jahiliyyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance), and this is shirk with Allah (Mighty and Majestic). This action is not permissible, and it is from the exaggeration regarding the dead. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 02/258 — archive.org (12:34)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.