The Ruling on Identifying Historical Sites and Welcoming Visitors for Tourism
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh! We hear and read about identifying historical and ancient sites, such as the ruins of the people of Salih and the people of the trench, and some old mosques, and others, to be made into places for tourism, as is the case in the city of Al-Ula, and welcoming visitors from inside and outside, just as delegations are welcomed. We ask you to issue a fatwa on this?
Answer:
The work is not permissible. The work is not permissible. Identifying antiquities, protecting them, and preparing for tourism is a work that is not permissible, because it leads to shirk (associating partners with Allah). There are old and new fatwas on this matter. We ask Allah to guide the officials to act in accordance with the Shari'ah and to avoid what contradicts the Shari'ah. We ask Allah to guide them to do so. This is a work that is not permissible, for it is one of the means of shirk, whether in the near or distant future.
The presenter:
Yes.
Honorable Shaykh! We hear and read about identifying historical and ancient sites, such as the ruins of the people of Salih and the people of the trench, and some old mosques, and others, to be made into places for tourism, as is the case in the city of Al-Ula, and welcoming visitors from inside and outside, just as delegations are welcomed. We ask you to issue a fatwa on this?
Answer:
The work is not permissible. The work is not permissible. Identifying antiquities, protecting them, and preparing for tourism is a work that is not permissible, because it leads to shirk (associating partners with Allah). There are old and new fatwas on this matter. We ask Allah to guide the officials to act in accordance with the Shari'ah and to avoid what contradicts the Shari'ah. We ask Allah to guide them to do so. This is a work that is not permissible, for it is one of the means of shirk, whether in the near or distant future.
The presenter:
Yes.
Source
شرح قرة عيون الموحدين في تحقيق دعوة الأنبياء والمرسلين، باب ما جاء أن الغلو في قبور الصالحين يصيرها أوثانًا تُعبد من دون الله — islamhouse.com (1:02:03)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.