The Ruling on Praying the Festival Prayer Toward the Graveyards

Question:
We return at the beginning of this episode, Your Eminence the Shaykh, to the message from listener Abd al-Rahman Hisham from Sudan, Khartoum Bahri. We presented part of his questions in a previous episode, and in this episode he asks, along with his brothers who had previously asked a single question, that question being: Is it permissible to pray the festival prayer toward the graveyards, with the graveyard in front of them? And what do you advise us? May Allah reward you with good.

Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, and his Companions, and upon those who follow his guidance. After that:
Praying toward the graves is not permissible; because it is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: It was narrated by Muslim in the Sahih.
So one does not pray toward a grave, nor sit on it. It is forbidden to sit on it, or to relieve oneself on it, or to step on it with one’s foot, in the case of a Muslim’s grave. That is not permissible, nor does one pray toward the graves making them the qiblah, nor between them; because it is established from him (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: So he forbade them from taking the graves as mosques, meaning: places of prayer So one does not pray between them, nor toward them. Rather, it is obligatory that there be a separator between the mosque and them, such as a wall, or a far distance like a valley between them and the graves, or a mountain, or a wide, distant piece of land, so that it is not thought that one is praying toward them, and that they are being targeted.
And if there is a wall between the mosque and them, other than the wall of the graveyard, namely the wall of the mosque, that is further from fitnah. And if the graveyard is to the right or left, that is better, and further from fitnah as well.
And mosques must be far from the places of shirk (associating partners with Allah) and the causes of shirk. If there are graves between them, or graves in front of them, or some graves in the middle of them, this is among the means of shirk; for this reason the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade praying in the mosques that are in the graves, and he said (peace and blessings be upon him) in condemnation of the Jews and the Christians: , and he said in another hadith, in the hadith of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) regarding Umm Salama and Umm Habiba, that they saw a church in the land of Abyssinia and the images in it, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
So he informed that they are the worst of creation because of their evil deed, and building mosques on the graves, and taking images on them, meaning: images of the people of the graves, as the people of Noah did when they made statues of Wadd, Suwa', Yaghuth, Ya'uq, and Nasr, and they erected them in their gathering places until they were worshipped besides Allah.
And the summary is: that it is obligatory that mosques be far from the graves, and that no one be buried in them. It is not permissible for anyone to be buried in the mosque, not in its qiblah, nor its north, nor its south, nor its rear. It is obligatory that mosques be far from the graves, with a separator between them and the graves, so that it is not thought that the worshippers are praying toward the graves. As for a separator of walls, or houses, or a road separating them from the mosques, or a valley or something similar that removes the doubt. Yes.

The presenter: May Allah reward you with good.