A woman says: I had a wish that I hoped would be fulfilled by Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and I made many vows for it to come true, and I used to go to the mosques of the awliya (close friends of Allah)

The questioner : The questioner says: I had a wish that I hoped would be fulfilled by Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and I made many vows for it to come true, and I used to go to the mosques of the righteous awliya (close friends of Allah) and make vows there as well. After this wish was fulfilled, I fulfilled what I remember of these vows, but there were many vows that I forgot due to the long time that has passed since I made them. I ask you, your Excellency, for clarification: do these forgotten vows drop off, or what should I do?

The Shaykh : We say in answer to this important question: First, that she makes vows to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to achieve her objective is a great error, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade vows and said: So it is not the vow that brings good to a person, nor is it the vow that wards off evil. If Allah decrees a decree, there is no turning it back, neither by a vow nor by anything else. For this reason, it came in another hadith: So what Allah wills happens, and what He does not will does not happen. Therefore, let not one who makes a vow and achieves his objective think that this is because of the vow, because the vow is disliked and forbidden, and what is disliked cannot be a means to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. How can one seek nearness to Allah by what the Messenger of Allah has forbidden? This is a contradiction. A person only seeks nearness to Allah by what He loves, meaning by what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, loves, so that the one seeking nearness obtains what he loves. Second: that she goes to the mosques of the awliya and the righteous. I understand from this that there are mosques built on the graves of the awliya and the righteous. These mosques that are built on the graves of the awliya and the righteous are not a place of worship or nearness, and prayer in them is not valid. They must be demolished, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade building on graves and said: It is obligatory upon the rulers in lands where there are mosques built on graves that they demolish them, if they are sincere to Allah, His Messenger, His Book, and the Muslims. However, if the mosques existed before the graves and the dead person was buried in the mosque, then it is obligatory to dig up the grave, because the mosque was not built as a cemetery; it was built for prayer, remembrance, and recitation of the Qur'an. So it is obligatory to dig up this grave and take the dead person out and bury him with the people. It is not permissible to leave the grave in the mosque.
If someone says: How can you say this, when the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is in his mosque now, and the mosque surrounds it on all sides, and the Muslims still see this? The answer is: This Ummah does not agree upon misguidance. The mosque was not built on the grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Messenger was not buried in the mosque. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was not buried in the mosque, and the mosque was not built on his grave. The mosque was old; the Messenger built it when he arrived in Madinah as an emigrant. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was not buried in it, but was buried in his house, in the room of 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her). Then, when the Muslims needed to expand the mosque, they expanded it, and the houses of the wives of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) entered into it, including the house of 'A'ishah. But it was a separate house; the Muslims did not intend when they expanded the mosque for it to be part of the mosque. It is a room in the mosque that existed before the expansion of the mosque, meaning the addition to the mosque. Then it was added to by being surrounded by three walls, so it is a separate structure that predates this addition. And when they added it, they believed that this was a structure separate from the mosque, distinguished by its walls. So it is not like the case where a dead person is brought and buried on the side of the mosque, or a mosque is built on a grave. And in that case, there is no argument for the people of the mosques that were built on graves or in which the dead were buried, absolutely. And arguing with this is nothing but a doubt that the people of desires cast upon the simple people of the land to take it as a means to justify their positions in the mosques built on their graves. And how many are the ambiguous matters, or those that their practitioners make ambiguous in order to mislead the servants of Allah! These are two important matters in the answer to this question. As for the third matter: she does not know the number of vows she made. So it is not obligatory upon her except what she knows, because the original state is the innocence of the conscience. So what she knows of the vows, it is obligatory upon her to fulfill it. And what she does not know, it is not obligatory upon her, because the original state is the innocence of the conscience except by certainty. But I repeat the prohibition of vows, whether it is an absolute vow or one conditional upon a condition. I repeat this because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade vows and said: This is the speech of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): It does not turn back a decree, nor does it lift a calamity. Rather, it burdens a person and obligates him with what is not obligatory for him and what is a state of well-being for him. Whether this vow is conditional upon a condition, such as saying: If Allah heals my sick person, then I owe Allah such and such, or not conditional, such as saying: I owe Allah a vow to fast ten days every month, for example. So stay far, stay far from vows. We ask Allah for safety.

The questioner : May Allah bless you.