A man lives in a village that has a mosque, and this mosque contains a grave, and there is no other mosque. Is the congregational prayer excused for him in this mosque?

The questioner : A man lives in a village that has a mosque, and this mosque contains a grave, and there is no other mosque. Is the congregational prayer excused for him in this mosque?

The Shaykh : If he knows that it is not permissible to pray in a mosque that contains a grave, and as you say, there is no other mosque, and he is unable to go to a nearby village to pray, then what I see is that it is permissible for him to pray in this mosque. This is because I believe that the prohibition of praying in mosques built over graves falls under the category of blocking the means to harm. So if the one praying knows this ruling and has an excuse for praying in this mosque, then in my view, his case is like that of a person praying at a time when prayer is disliked, but he does not intentionally pray at that time. His prayer is valid if he does not do it intentionally, and there is no dislike in it. Otherwise, if he does it intentionally, it is well known that this intentionality is a matter for which he is held accountable. Your question is very clear in that he does not intend to pray in this mosque, but rather because he does not find another mosque free of a grave. This is one thing. The other thing, in my opinion, is that it is obligatory for this person, if he has some knowledge, to spread this issue among the worshippers, even gradually and without making a fuss, so that he does not cause a problem or fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) in the mosque. Perhaps Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will benefit the people of the mosque through him, and perhaps with time they will respond, either by building a new mosque if the mosque was built over the grave, or by removing the grave if the grave was built over the mosque. The answer is clear.

The questioner : ... ؟

The Shaykh : We do not have the text you are mentioning, my brother. We have the prohibition of taking graves as mosques. And this prohibition entails certain matters, as we mentioned in detail in a specific book on this issue, titled "Warning the Worshipper from Taking Graves as Mosques." This prohibition entails the prohibition of building a mosque over a grave, and it entails the prohibition of praying in a mosque that contains a grave, as explained previously, and it entails the prohibition of praying facing a grave.
So this hadith and its like contain the prohibition of all these matters. If a man prays facing a grave... but he did not intend to pray facing the grave, then his prayer is valid because the intention was not to face the grave. This is in addition to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) . When 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) saw Anas ibn Malik praying facing a grave, 'Umar said to him, "The grave, the grave." Anas did not immediately understand this word and raised his gaze, as if he understood that he was saying "the moon, the moon." So 'Umar repeated it to him, saying, "The grave, the grave," meaning, beware of the grave and stay away from the grave. The point of this report is that he did not say that your prayer is invalid. We said what we said earlier, after this clarification, that the prohibition of building mosques over graves is from the category of blocking the means to harm. So if the worshipper is excused, as stated in the question, he is like one who prays at times of dislike while being excused. There is no difference between this and that. But it is upon us to advise people not to build mosques over graves, and to look into whether a mosque was built over a grave, in which case the mosque is removed, and vice versa.