Compiled by: Tauheed.com
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🕌✨ The Prophet ﷺ forbade making shrines, domes, solid graves, and pictures of living beings ✨📖
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🏛️ ❶ The Beginning of Idolatry – The First Trial in the People of Noah
🌿 Allah Almighty’s Command:
﴿وَقَالُوا لَا تَذَرُنَّ آلِهَتَكُمْ وَلَا تَذَرُنَّ وَدًّا وَلَا سُوَاعًا وَلَا يَغُوثَ وَيَعُوقَ وَنَسْرًا﴾
📖 Translation:
“And they said, ‘Never abandon your gods, nor abandon Wadd, nor Suwa’, nor Yaghuth, nor Ya’uq, nor Nasr.'”
These were all righteous people who passed away among the people of Noah. After their death, people made statues and pictures in their memory, intending that their remembrance would encourage goodness. Over time, these pictures and statues became objects of worship.
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🪦 ❷ The Journey from Idolatry to Grave Worship
📜 Historical Fact:
Pictures and statues were initially made only as memorials, but later people began to sit at the graves of these elders, become devotees, and start asking them for prayers.
Abdullah bin Abbas رضي الله عنه says:
“These were all righteous people of the people of Noah, their graves were started to be sat upon, then their statues were made, and gradually they began to be worshipped.”
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🕌 ❸ Prohibition of turning graves into mosques
📚 Sayyida Umm Salamah رضي الله عنها went to Abyssinia and saw a church filled with pictures.
🌟 The command of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ:
“These are the people who, when a righteous person among them dies, they make his grave a mosque, i.e., a place of worship (such as for prayer, vows, etc.). They are the worst creatures in the sight of Allah.”
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🏚️ ❹ Raising graves and building domes
📘 The command of the Messenger ﷺ:
“If you see a raised grave, level it with the ground, and if you see a picture, erase it.”
🕌 Practice of the Caliphs:
The Prophet ﷺ assigned Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه the responsibility to level raised graves. This is a continuous Sunnah.
“O Ali! Erase whatever idol or picture you see, and level the high graves to the level of other graves.”
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🕌 ❺ Curse on making graves into mosques
📖 Prophetic Hadith ﷺ
“Beware! People before you used to make mosques over the graves of their Prophets. Do not do that at all. I strictly forbid you from this.”
🌩️ Severity of the curse:
The Holy Prophet ﷺ said at the time of his passing away:
“لعن الله اليهود والنصارى اتخذوا قبور انبيائهم مساجد”
🔹 Translation:
“May Allah’s curse be upon the Jews and Christians who made the graves of their Prophets places of prostration.”
📌 Sayyida Aisha (RA) says:
If there was no fear that your ﷺ grave would be made a place of prostration, then your blessed grave would have been made prominent and open.
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🔥 ❻ Curse on lighting lamps and building domes over graves
📚 Hadith
Imam Ahmad and the Ahl al-Sunnah have narrated from Zaid bin Thabit that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “May Allah’s curse be upon women who visit graves, upon those who build mosques on graves, and upon those who light lamps on graves.”
⛔ Why is this act impermissible?
• Lighting lamps = making the grave a place of worship
• Building domes = exaggeration in honoring the grave
• Building mosques = associating worship with the grave
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⚒️ ❼ The Shariah basis for demolishing domes
📖 Hadith
Abu al-Hayaj al-Asadi reports that Hazrat Ali (RA) said:
“The Prophet ﷺ commanded me to level every high grave to the ground and to erase every image.”
🏛️ Practical example:
When the founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdul Aziz, took power, he removed all domes and shrines from graves. He asked the scholars that if it is proven from the Quran and Sunnah that this is not impermissible, then he would build domes of gold and silver, but all the scholars remained silent.
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📐 ❽ The Shariah Status of Building on Graves
📖 Ibn Hibban has narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir رضي الله عنه that:
نهي رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ان يحجصص القبر وان يبني عليه وان يوطاءَ
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade plastering the grave with lime and building a structure over it, and also forbade stepping on the grave.”
These words are additional in the Sahih Muslim hadith.
وان يكتب عليه “Meaning, he forbade placing any inscription or writing on it.”
📚 Imam Ibn Hibban narrates:
“Building walls, structures, domes, etc. over graves is all impermissible.”
📌 Linguistic Evidence:
When the Arabs say “The city has a wall,” it means the center as well as its surroundings. Similarly, constructions around the grave are included in this prohibition.
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May Allah protect us from grave worship and shirk. Ameen.
