The Ruling on Placing Markers on Graves
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Benefits from the explanation of the book *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim li-Mukhalafat Ahl al-Jahim* by Ibn Taymiyyah. Sometimes some Muslims place markers on graves, O Shaykh, small or few, at the head of the grave, indicating it with a stone, a stick, or a spray. What is the ruling on that? And your guidance, may Allah reward you with good. And do the organizations, for example, or the religious authorities, do they pass by the cemeteries every period, every month or two months, and remove these? Because mostly, when their deceased person dies, they want to put a marker on it, and then they forget about it.
Answer:
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited many things regarding graves, including placing lamps on them and praying at them, and plastering them, meaning painting them with colors on the surface of the grave, whether with plaster, lime, or the paint known today. This is not permissible because it draws attention to them and attaches hearts to them. He prohibited writing on them, writing on them by writing the name of so-and-so and the date of his death, or praising him as the wali so-and-so, as is the case with shrines. This is forbidden because it attaches the hearts of people to them, brings visitors to them, and they think that this deceased person has a status, and that these actions were not done around him except because he has a status, and that he fulfills needs, and so on, as they claim. So, to block the means to harm, the graves of Muslims should be made equal, just as the graves of the Companions were equal, with no distinction for one over another, but rather they are equal graves. In fact, you do not know this one from that one unless you had attended his burial before. However, if you place a marker to know the grave for the sake of visiting it and sending salam to it, and this marker is not of what was prohibited, such as placing a stone on it, a stick, or something similar that does not give one who sees it a sense of importance, then there is no harm in that. Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) placed a stone on the grave of Uthman ibn Maz'un in order for him (peace and blessings be upon him) to visit it.
So placing a marker that does not indicate veneration, and is known only by the one who placed it, is permissible.
Benefits from the explanation of the book *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim li-Mukhalafat Ahl al-Jahim* by Ibn Taymiyyah. Sometimes some Muslims place markers on graves, O Shaykh, small or few, at the head of the grave, indicating it with a stone, a stick, or a spray. What is the ruling on that? And your guidance, may Allah reward you with good. And do the organizations, for example, or the religious authorities, do they pass by the cemeteries every period, every month or two months, and remove these? Because mostly, when their deceased person dies, they want to put a marker on it, and then they forget about it.
Answer:
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited many things regarding graves, including placing lamps on them and praying at them, and plastering them, meaning painting them with colors on the surface of the grave, whether with plaster, lime, or the paint known today. This is not permissible because it draws attention to them and attaches hearts to them. He prohibited writing on them, writing on them by writing the name of so-and-so and the date of his death, or praising him as the wali so-and-so, as is the case with shrines. This is forbidden because it attaches the hearts of people to them, brings visitors to them, and they think that this deceased person has a status, and that these actions were not done around him except because he has a status, and that he fulfills needs, and so on, as they claim. So, to block the means to harm, the graves of Muslims should be made equal, just as the graves of the Companions were equal, with no distinction for one over another, but rather they are equal graves. In fact, you do not know this one from that one unless you had attended his burial before. However, if you place a marker to know the grave for the sake of visiting it and sending salam to it, and this marker is not of what was prohibited, such as placing a stone on it, a stick, or something similar that does not give one who sees it a sense of importance, then there is no harm in that. Because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) placed a stone on the grave of Uthman ibn Maz'un in order for him (peace and blessings be upon him) to visit it.
So placing a marker that does not indicate veneration, and is known only by the one who placed it, is permissible.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [890] حكم وضع علامات على القبور |فوائد شرح اقتضاء الصراط المستقيم|الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.