What is your opinion of the one who says that the ruling belongs to the first one; if the mosque was first, the grave is exhumed, and if the grave was first, the mosque is demolished?

The questioner : Some scholars say that if a grave is introduced into a mosque, the grave is exhumed and the mosque remains, and they say that if a grave is built on a mosque, the mosque is demolished. Is this distinction correct, and does it have a basis in the Sunnah?

The Shaykh : It is correct, but it has no relation to the ruling on praying in it. The ruling on prayer is the same whether the mosque came upon the grave or the grave came upon the mosque; the ruling is what you have heard. As for whether the grave or the mosque is removed, one must put an end to the wrongdoer and the rebel. If there is a piece of land in which a dead person was buried, and one of the rebels comes and builds a mosque on it, this mosque is removed because he is the rebel. Conversely, if there is a mosque built out of fear of Allah the Exalted, and one of the rebels wills that if he dies he be buried in it, and he is actually buried in it, his corpse is thrown out of the mosque because he is the rebel against the mosque. This statement is correct without a doubt. And beware of it.