Is it permissible to pray in mosques where the dead are buried or which are built on graveyards?
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The Shaykh : We ask Allah to guide us...
The questioner : It is that in our village there is a mosque built on a shrine, and you said that the mosque should not be demolished and the shrine should be left, but when I went and saw the people...
The Shaykh : I did not say that.
The questioner : Quoting a fatwa by Ibn Taymiyyah.
The Shaykh : I did not say that, and what does it have to do with Ibn Taymiyyah? You are with me now...
The Shaykh : I said that when the mosque is being encroached upon, the grave is demolished and the mosque remains, but the grave is being encroached upon, so in that case you...
The Shaykh : And if it is not being encroached upon?
The questioner : If the grave is not being encroached upon?
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : The mosque remains.
The Shaykh : Yes, that is what I said, and what you said just now...
The questioner : The mosque is being encroached upon, but I found that the people are seeking nearness to Allah, supplicating, and associating partners with Allah because of this grave, and they have no goal except to build the mosque again on this grave, so I demolished the grave and moved it at night to the Muslim cemetery, it and another grave, both of them, and I removed them from this area and dug it all up, including the graves. The first was a grave in two mosques; the first mosque I found was built on a fake grave, and as for the second, I found three corpses there and we moved them at night and buried them in the Muslim cemetery. Now a new mosque has been built under every shrine, meaning the two mosques have now purified the shrines and new mosques have been built in their place. What is the ruling on praying in them? And am I sinful for moving these shrines?
The Shaykh : Of course, because if the encroachment on the mosque, which is just stones, has a special legal sanctity, then likewise it is not permissible to encroach upon human beings or the dead, because they have sanctity. As you know from the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):, so you encroached upon the owners of these graves, whose bodies or bones you moved to the cemetery. As for the other mosque where you found nothing but soil, yes, you did well. Perhaps in this action of yours, you acted in accordance with his (peace be upon him) saying without intending or realizing it: Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1987Hasan (Darussalam). So you are, as Allah the Exalted said: [At-Tawbah 9:102]. As for the second time, I advise you not to be among the ignorant, Abu Shusha. Do not proceed with an action contrary to knowledge...
The questioner : And I made a defective analogy, and there was someone who issued a fatwa for me and said that the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) mosque had graves under it, and that these were the graves of polytheists. The fatwa became confused in my mind, and I made a defective analogy. Is it better to leave the people in their shirk with this grave, or to move this grave to the Muslim cemetery? Which of the two is the greater sin?
The Shaykh : May Allah forgive you, Abu Shusha, and have you become one of the great scholars?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : No, and if you have not yet become one of the great scholars, how was it permissible for you to make an analogy? Only the great scholars make analogies.
The questioner : Ask Allah for me...
The Shaykh : To guide us and you.
The questioner : With pardon and forgiveness.
The Shaykh : To guide us and you, if Allah wills. I advise you not to be among the ignorant.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : And peace be upon you.
The questioner : And peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And this is a benefit, if there is some freedom, a benefit of forbidding evil by hand. Now this grave has collapsed and they will not return to it, and that first mosque, which is a project, they also removed the grave and they will not return to it, but unfortunately...
Another questioner : Our Shaykh, if the grave is emptied and the building structure is left...
The Shaykh : The criterion is the appearance.
Another questioner : The appearance.
The Shaykh : Now, if the grave's appearance from the inside has nothing in it, like what they say about that one who was told: Ali, O Haman, do you know it?
Another questioner : Meaning approval and confirmation that it is permissible.
The Shaykh : And conversely, there are graves in the ground, but they have no appearance on the surface of the earth, just as Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri said, "These are our graves that fill the wide spaces, so where are the graves from the time of my time?*** Lighten your step, I do not think the earth will bear them except from these bodies." The earth is like this,[Al-Mursalat 77:25-26], but the criterion is the appearance. And this appearance is what tempts people away from their religion and leads them to associate partners with their Lord in worship. So if there is a visible grave in the mosque, people come and seek nearness to Allah through it, call upon other than Allah, and associate partners with Allah in it, and so on. If there is a grave inside but it is buried, what is in the depths of the earth does not affect things, as long as it has no visible existence.
Abu Layla : Like the judge of requests, that grave that was in Syria.
The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.
The questioner : It is that in our village there is a mosque built on a shrine, and you said that the mosque should not be demolished and the shrine should be left, but when I went and saw the people...
The Shaykh : I did not say that.
The questioner : Quoting a fatwa by Ibn Taymiyyah.
The Shaykh : I did not say that, and what does it have to do with Ibn Taymiyyah? You are with me now...
The Shaykh : I said that when the mosque is being encroached upon, the grave is demolished and the mosque remains, but the grave is being encroached upon, so in that case you...
The Shaykh : And if it is not being encroached upon?
The questioner : If the grave is not being encroached upon?
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : The mosque remains.
The Shaykh : Yes, that is what I said, and what you said just now...
The questioner : The mosque is being encroached upon, but I found that the people are seeking nearness to Allah, supplicating, and associating partners with Allah because of this grave, and they have no goal except to build the mosque again on this grave, so I demolished the grave and moved it at night to the Muslim cemetery, it and another grave, both of them, and I removed them from this area and dug it all up, including the graves. The first was a grave in two mosques; the first mosque I found was built on a fake grave, and as for the second, I found three corpses there and we moved them at night and buried them in the Muslim cemetery. Now a new mosque has been built under every shrine, meaning the two mosques have now purified the shrines and new mosques have been built in their place. What is the ruling on praying in them? And am I sinful for moving these shrines?
The Shaykh : Of course, because if the encroachment on the mosque, which is just stones, has a special legal sanctity, then likewise it is not permissible to encroach upon human beings or the dead, because they have sanctity. As you know from the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him):
Breaking the bone of a dead believer is like breaking it while he is alive.
كسر عظم المؤمن الميت ككسره حيّاand follow an evil deed with a good one to wipe it out
وأتبع السّيئة الحسنة تمحهاThey had mixed a righteous deed with another that was bad
خلطوا عملا صالحا وآخر سيئاThe questioner : And I made a defective analogy, and there was someone who issued a fatwa for me and said that the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) mosque had graves under it, and that these were the graves of polytheists. The fatwa became confused in my mind, and I made a defective analogy. Is it better to leave the people in their shirk with this grave, or to move this grave to the Muslim cemetery? Which of the two is the greater sin?
The Shaykh : May Allah forgive you, Abu Shusha, and have you become one of the great scholars?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : No, and if you have not yet become one of the great scholars, how was it permissible for you to make an analogy? Only the great scholars make analogies.
The questioner : Ask Allah for me...
The Shaykh : To guide us and you.
The questioner : With pardon and forgiveness.
The Shaykh : To guide us and you, if Allah wills. I advise you not to be among the ignorant.
The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : And peace be upon you.
The questioner : And peace be upon you.
The Shaykh : And this is a benefit, if there is some freedom, a benefit of forbidding evil by hand. Now this grave has collapsed and they will not return to it, and that first mosque, which is a project, they also removed the grave and they will not return to it, but unfortunately...
Another questioner : Our Shaykh, if the grave is emptied and the building structure is left...
The Shaykh : The criterion is the appearance.
Another questioner : The appearance.
The Shaykh : Now, if the grave's appearance from the inside has nothing in it, like what they say about that one who was told: Ali, O Haman, do you know it?
Another questioner : Meaning approval and confirmation that it is permissible.
The Shaykh : And conversely, there are graves in the ground, but they have no appearance on the surface of the earth, just as Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri said, "These are our graves that fill the wide spaces, so where are the graves from the time of my time?*** Lighten your step, I do not think the earth will bear them except from these bodies." The earth is like this,
the earth a container (26) Of the living and the dead?
والأرض كفاتا أحياءا وأمواتاAbu Layla : Like the judge of requests, that grave that was in Syria.
The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.