The ruling on praying in a mosque built over a grave, and does the ruling differ if the grave is not in the direction of the qiblah?

Question:
May Allah reward you with good and do you good. The brothers from the Prophet’s city are also asking. They read that praying in a mosque that contains a grave is not valid, and they heard from one of the shaykhs that it is permissible to pray in it as long as the grave is not in the direction of the qiblah. Please guide us, may Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
This statement is incorrect. If a mosque is built for the sake of a grave and to honor the grave, then it is not permissible to pray in it, and the prayer is not valid, whether the grave is in the qiblah or not in the qiblah. As long as the mosque is built over a grave, and the intention is the grave and seeking blessing from the grave, it is a mosque built over a grave. It falls under the mosques built over graves for which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) cursed those who built them, because that is a means to shirk (associating partners with Allah). The operative cause is not that the grave is in the direction of the qiblah, but rather that it is a means to shirk. Because whoever prays in these mosques built over graves, that causes him, even in the long run, to become attached to the grave, as people do with it, as the grave-worshippers do. So the means that lead to the forbidden are forbidden without doubt. Is the operative cause that the grave is in the qiblah of the mosque? No, but the operative cause is that this is honoring the graves and becoming attached to them, whether they are in the qiblah or not in the qiblah.