The Shaykh’s discussion regarding the hadith in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) placed a stone on the grave of Ja‘far and said, “I am marking the grave of my brother, and I will bury in it whoever dies of my family”
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : What do you want to clarify for us?
The questioner : It means two things: The first thing: The burial place of Ja‘far is established to be at Mu’tah, and he was not transferred to Madinah.
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : And this was the practice of the Companions, and they all knew it.
The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.
The questioner : The second thing is that if that is not established, and Ja‘far was buried in this place, then perhaps I do not know what the matter was with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the grave of Ja‘far.
The Shaykh : In any case, may Allah reward you. We take from the hadith not specifically the buried person, but rather the cause (‘illah) to which the Messenger (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) referred. And now, I am reserving my judgment slightly, as what is in my mind is that the hadith is specifically about Ja‘far.
The questioner : I think it is.
The Shaykh : Do you know of any disagreement on that?
The questioner : I think it is about ‘Aqil.
The Shaykh : No, no, it is not about ‘Aqil.
The questioner : I think, and Allah knows best, that it was in the time of ... .
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner :Mishkat al-Masabih 1711 .
The Shaykh : Yes, that is what is in my mind, but now the doubt I raised has made me reserve my judgment slightly. However, my answer is what I began with just now.
The questioner : The established cause.
The Shaykh : And that is that we hold fast to the causeSunan Abi Dawud 3206Hasan (Al-Albani), and this is actually a present reality. That is, there are cemeteries in some areas or for some families where they bury the dead from time to time. So this cause is one that we cannot turn away from or give no weight to because Ja‘far (may Allah be pleased with him) was buried in a distant land.
The questioner : No, no, no, I am not saying that we dismiss the cause because it is not established that Ja‘far (may Allah be pleased with him) was buried in Madinah.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : I am also circling back to the same cause right now.
The Shaykh: Go ahead.
The questioner : So I say, does this... does this... because I return to say if this statement is not established.
The Shaykh : Which statement?
The questioner : If it is not established that Ja‘far was buried in Madinah.
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : Then how do we say that the Messenger (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) made this marker?!
The Shaykh : I began my statement just now that this is an established cause, whether for Ja‘far or for anyone else. I said that it does not concern us to know the identity of the buried person.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : And what is in my memory is that it was Ja‘far, and I tried to correct myself, but I have not yet reached any correction. However, it does not harm us if the buried person is Ja‘far or someone else, as long as we take the ruling from his statement (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) and his explanation of the cause for this ruling, which is his sayingSunan Abi Dawud 3206Hasan (Al-Albani). But if the intention—and I do not think this is likely—is that a cause was placed in the hadith to be said that the hadith is originally not authentic, then this takes on another dimension, and I do not think you are circling around that.
The questioner : No, I return to say.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : This cause, let us also leave the hadith of Ja‘far and say perhaps Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), if Allah wills, will help you and clarify it for us, if Allah wills.
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : But I say that this cause can occur and remain valid if there were graves in the manner they were in the days of the Prophet (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him), and in the early period of Madinah, where the Companions were not numerous but were few. But now, may Allah reward you, a man does not have the ability to bury his relative, his father, mother, brother, or mother, etc., in the place he chooses, ever, even if he buries the closest person to him and wants to tell the digger or the cemetery guard.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : Or—what do you call it—the undertaker, do you call him the undertaker? Yes, that he tells him, “I am marking these graves so that I can bury whoever dies of my relatives.”
The Shaykh : That is not likely.
The questioner : That is not likely.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : So the cause here is negated by the negation of the thing that was present in the days of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. When you say the cause is negated, is it negated in all the graves of the Muslims and in all the lands of Islam? We cannot say that.
The questioner : In Egypt, our professor, we bury the whole family in one grave.
The Shaykh : I am saying that this cause cannot be in ... .
The questioner : The saqiyah, which they call the saqiyah, this is also present here with us, so it does not need a marker.
The Shaykh : No, excuse me, let us speak now regarding the placement of graves here. This is here as you said, but it is not so for all the lands.
The questioner : It is, our Shaykh.
The Shaykh : We cannot say that.
The questioner : By Allah, our Shaykh, it is as if all the lands are circling in their graves around this. Now, we have here a nearby cemetery called the Cemetery of Umm ... . This municipality or the Amman Municipality proposed or offered to people to buy plots. The size of the plot, I think, is fifty meters. Most people bought them and are building graves in the way we know in our lands when the graves were a small place, a small piece of land.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : And not present in another place or far from them. They did not think that this was the famous practice among them and nothing else. So what is present now in this cemetery, as for the modern cemeteries of Amman and other than the cemeteries of Amman, if there is not the known system of saqiyah, the graves are equal throughout the Islamic world.
The Shaykh : My professor, why do people contradict the Sunnah and place markers? Is it not to identify the grave? And so that the features of the graves are not lost?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So here, in your opinion, or in a reasonable cause with meaning, and being textually established by the Shari'ah, I cannot deny the existence of this cause, deny it for all the cemeteries of the Muslims in all the lands of the world. You gave an example, this is very reasonable, and a person cannot enter the grave of the deceased to know it, so he does not need this. But where the need arose, the cause arose, and where it was negated, it was negated.
The questioner: Yes.
Another questioner : Regarding marking the graves, if we leave this matter to people now, they may open a new door of religious innovation. Some people make a plane out of stone on the grave, and some build in such a shape and such a shape, and this is perhaps a greater calamity than writing on the graves.
The questioner : This ... is also strict, as strict as you are. The ignorance of the Muslims does not permit us to leave the Sunnah for the sake of ... .
The Shaykh : Give me my first statement, what did I say?
The questioner : I said regarding marking the graves with a marker, if we leave it to the people themselves by the Shari'ah, for example, each person marks his grave with a marker.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : So some people specialize in these markers, some make a plane out of stone, and some make a rocket.
The Shaykh : Ah, wait a moment ... if we first established the Shari'ah ruling.
The questioner: Yes.
Another questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : As if it were said that for dire necessity, eating carrion is permissible. Is there any harm to us if people expand in eating carrion and exceed the dire necessity in it? Would the position then be that we do not say it is permissible for the specific thing whose original ruling is prohibition? We do not say it is permissible for dire necessity out of fear that people will expand in using this ruling that we permitted for dire necessity? Is this permissible?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : So we must say, in the presence of dire necessity or within the limits of achieving the stronger public benefit, we say this. But if people expanded later, as I said, we are not ... responsible for them.
The questioner : We can write the name of the deceased.
The Shaykh : I did not flee from this and I said clearly, we do not want to fall into contradicting the hadith: “The Messenger prohibited writing on the grave.”
The questioner : Okay, our Shaykh, the stones are similar; because we have a thousand graves now and every grave has a stone, how do we know?
The questioner : Put a marker, put a circle, a red or brown one.
The questioner : It is visible, by Allah, this is difficult, it is hard in these days.
The questioner : It means two things: The first thing: The burial place of Ja‘far is established to be at Mu’tah, and he was not transferred to Madinah.
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : And this was the practice of the Companions, and they all knew it.
The Shaykh : Yes, exactly.
The questioner : The second thing is that if that is not established, and Ja‘far was buried in this place, then perhaps I do not know what the matter was with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the grave of Ja‘far.
The Shaykh : In any case, may Allah reward you. We take from the hadith not specifically the buried person, but rather the cause (‘illah) to which the Messenger (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) referred. And now, I am reserving my judgment slightly, as what is in my mind is that the hadith is specifically about Ja‘far.
The questioner : I think it is.
The Shaykh : Do you know of any disagreement on that?
The questioner : I think it is about ‘Aqil.
The Shaykh : No, no, it is not about ‘Aqil.
The questioner : I think, and Allah knows best, that it was in the time of ... .
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner :
I am marking my brother’s grave with it
أعلِّم بها قبر أخي جعفرThe Shaykh : Yes, that is what is in my mind, but now the doubt I raised has made me reserve my judgment slightly. However, my answer is what I began with just now.
The questioner : The established cause.
The Shaykh : And that is that we hold fast to the cause
I am marking my brother's grave with it, and I shall bury beside him those of my family who die.
أُعلِّم به قبر أخي ، وأدفن إليه مَن مات من أهليThe questioner : No, no, no, I am not saying that we dismiss the cause because it is not established that Ja‘far (may Allah be pleased with him) was buried in Madinah.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : I am also circling back to the same cause right now.
The Shaykh: Go ahead.
The questioner : So I say, does this... does this... because I return to say if this statement is not established.
The Shaykh : Which statement?
The questioner : If it is not established that Ja‘far was buried in Madinah.
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : Then how do we say that the Messenger (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) made this marker?!
The Shaykh : I began my statement just now that this is an established cause, whether for Ja‘far or for anyone else. I said that it does not concern us to know the identity of the buried person.
The questioner : Yes.
The Shaykh : And what is in my memory is that it was Ja‘far, and I tried to correct myself, but I have not yet reached any correction. However, it does not harm us if the buried person is Ja‘far or someone else, as long as we take the ruling from his statement (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) and his explanation of the cause for this ruling, which is his saying
I am marking my brother's grave with it, and I shall bury beside him those of my family who die.
أُعَلِّم به قبر أخي ، وأدفن إليه مَن مات من أهليThe questioner : No, I return to say.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : This cause, let us also leave the hadith of Ja‘far and say perhaps Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), if Allah wills, will help you and clarify it for us, if Allah wills.
The Shaykh: All right.
The questioner : But I say that this cause can occur and remain valid if there were graves in the manner they were in the days of the Prophet (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him), and in the early period of Madinah, where the Companions were not numerous but were few. But now, may Allah reward you, a man does not have the ability to bury his relative, his father, mother, brother, or mother, etc., in the place he chooses, ever, even if he buries the closest person to him and wants to tell the digger or the cemetery guard.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : Or—what do you call it—the undertaker, do you call him the undertaker? Yes, that he tells him, “I am marking these graves so that I can bury whoever dies of my relatives.”
The Shaykh : That is not likely.
The questioner : That is not likely.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : So the cause here is negated by the negation of the thing that was present in the days of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).
The Shaykh : May Allah reward you. When you say the cause is negated, is it negated in all the graves of the Muslims and in all the lands of Islam? We cannot say that.
The questioner : In Egypt, our professor, we bury the whole family in one grave.
The Shaykh : I am saying that this cause cannot be in ... .
The questioner : The saqiyah, which they call the saqiyah, this is also present here with us, so it does not need a marker.
The Shaykh : No, excuse me, let us speak now regarding the placement of graves here. This is here as you said, but it is not so for all the lands.
The questioner : It is, our Shaykh.
The Shaykh : We cannot say that.
The questioner : By Allah, our Shaykh, it is as if all the lands are circling in their graves around this. Now, we have here a nearby cemetery called the Cemetery of Umm ... . This municipality or the Amman Municipality proposed or offered to people to buy plots. The size of the plot, I think, is fifty meters. Most people bought them and are building graves in the way we know in our lands when the graves were a small place, a small piece of land.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The questioner : And not present in another place or far from them. They did not think that this was the famous practice among them and nothing else. So what is present now in this cemetery, as for the modern cemeteries of Amman and other than the cemeteries of Amman, if there is not the known system of saqiyah, the graves are equal throughout the Islamic world.
The Shaykh : My professor, why do people contradict the Sunnah and place markers? Is it not to identify the grave? And so that the features of the graves are not lost?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh : So here, in your opinion, or in a reasonable cause with meaning, and being textually established by the Shari'ah, I cannot deny the existence of this cause, deny it for all the cemeteries of the Muslims in all the lands of the world. You gave an example, this is very reasonable, and a person cannot enter the grave of the deceased to know it, so he does not need this. But where the need arose, the cause arose, and where it was negated, it was negated.
The questioner: Yes.
Another questioner : Regarding marking the graves, if we leave this matter to people now, they may open a new door of religious innovation. Some people make a plane out of stone on the grave, and some build in such a shape and such a shape, and this is perhaps a greater calamity than writing on the graves.
The questioner : This ... is also strict, as strict as you are. The ignorance of the Muslims does not permit us to leave the Sunnah for the sake of ... .
The Shaykh : Give me my first statement, what did I say?
The questioner : I said regarding marking the graves with a marker, if we leave it to the people themselves by the Shari'ah, for example, each person marks his grave with a marker.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The questioner : So some people specialize in these markers, some make a plane out of stone, and some make a rocket.
The Shaykh : Ah, wait a moment ... if we first established the Shari'ah ruling.
The questioner: Yes.
Another questioner : May Allah reward you with good.
The Shaykh : As if it were said that for dire necessity, eating carrion is permissible. Is there any harm to us if people expand in eating carrion and exceed the dire necessity in it? Would the position then be that we do not say it is permissible for the specific thing whose original ruling is prohibition? We do not say it is permissible for dire necessity out of fear that people will expand in using this ruling that we permitted for dire necessity? Is this permissible?
The questioner: No.
The Shaykh : So we must say, in the presence of dire necessity or within the limits of achieving the stronger public benefit, we say this. But if people expanded later, as I said, we are not ... responsible for them.
The questioner : We can write the name of the deceased.
The Shaykh : I did not flee from this and I said clearly, we do not want to fall into contradicting the hadith: “The Messenger prohibited writing on the grave.”
The questioner : Okay, our Shaykh, the stones are similar; because we have a thousand graves now and every grave has a stone, how do we know?
The questioner : Put a marker, put a circle, a red or brown one.
The questioner : It is visible, by Allah, this is difficult, it is hard in these days.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.