Dars e Imam-Tomb Ijma

“Bismillahir Rahmannir Raheem””Al-Hamdu Lillaahi Rabbil ‘Aalameen was Salaatu was- Salaamu ‘Alaa Sayidinaa Muhammadin wa Aalihi wa Asabihi Ajma ‘een (tauheed- risalat- ahkirat and islam-iman-ihsan)

The legality of having a tomb connected to the mosque comes from the ijma of the salaf with regards to the grave of the Prophet ﷺ which was buried in the room of Ayesha (radiAllahu anha). This room of Ayesha was connected to the mosque. Moreover, the ijma of salaf also existed in including the room as part or within the expanded structure of the mosque. Shaykh Ali Jumah summarized the incident as follows:”In the year 88 A.H., Al-Walid Ibn Abd al-Malik issued orders to the governor of Medina at that time, ‘Umar Ibn Abd al-‘Aziz, to include the room where the Prophet was buried within the premises of the mosque itself. Scholars from among the seven scholars of Medina approved of this and none of them objected except Sa’id Ibn al-Musaib. He only protested because he wanted to preserve the Prophet’s quarters to serve as an example for Muslims to become acquainted with the living conditions of the Prophet and thereby renounce worldly pleasures not because he maintained the prohibition of praying in a mosque containing a grave.”

This ijma is also a reflection of another similar case recorded by Musa ibn ‘Uqba (d. 141H) recorded –in his Maghazi with a Sahih chain (Also recorded by Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr in his Isti’ab, Ibn Ishaq in his Sira, and others.) – that when one of the Sahaba (Abu Basir) died, a masjid was built over his grave in the presence of 300 Companions. This was towards the end of the Prophet’s ﷺ earthly life, when the Sahaba were far away from the risk of shirk.

Furthermore we see in Sahih al Bukhari, the following narration as a part of long narration:”Abdullah related that the Prophet ﷺ prayed at the end of the upper part of the valley behind al-‘Arj if you are on the way to Hadba.*There are two or three graves at that mosque, on which are piles of stones, to the right of the path at the large stones marking the path. ‘Abdullah used to return home from al-‘Arj after the sun had declined from midday. He would pray Dhuhr in that mosque.'” [Sahih Bukhari, Hadith No.470]

Moreover, the tombs that are in existance today are not considered as a masjid in and of itself, in the first place. Many of them are mere structures to facilitate ziyarah and mark the grave, by a bayt over it. And those places were mosques do exist, they are built in the vicinity of

the grave and is usually seperated from the tomb by some form of a barrier and exist as part of whole complex of buildings. The tomb is also at times used as a place for preserving the relics of the individual and provisions are made to facilitate ziyarah. Therefore, the argument made against ahlus sunnah that they turned graves into masjid is completely false, as neither the grave itself nor its immediate close surrounding was considered ever as a masjid. They were instead seperated from the masjid, just as the bayt in which rests the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him, was seperated by walls from the masjid. The grave by itself never tookover the function of a masjid.

But even despite this, if the misguided group say that such seperation is not enough, then:
1) They are opposing the sahabah and salaf who took the warnings related in the hadith by putting up a barrier between the grave and masjid.
2) They need to bring their own proof if they are truthful, as they shoulder the burden to provide evidence as to how many metres or kilometres away from a grave can a masjid be built or salat be performed.
Without it, then they themselves are the real heretical innovators for introducing laws into the religion which never existed in the shariah.

The sixth meaning, which some of the Maliki scholars related is that of frequently visiting the graves whereby it becomes equivalent to a person’s frequency in visiting a masjid. Scholars have divergent opinion on this whereby others held on the basis of different narrations that graves do indeed have to be frequently visited. Therefore, it is not proof enough for some to force their opinion upon others by selective choosing (as in the case of najdis most of the time transgressing their supposed adherence to hanbali madhab), despite the different readings of the hadith. Moreover, it is regarding the dislikeness of “frequently” visiting and not a dislikeness of in-frequently visiting. And indeed the greetings upon the Prophet ﷺ reaches him from any place on the earth and hence it is not a requirement that a person has to always visit the graves to send their greetings.

But despite all this, it cannot be a proof for the — who claim with much pride that they would accept the opinion of the Imams only if they find proof of it in from the Quran and Sahih Hadith. So until they give direct unambiguous proof from Quran and Sahih Hadith without any possibilty of speculation, to support this interpretation; the stand taken by the — would remain rejected by their own principles.

Some of the wahhabiyya have tried to counter argue that since the Prophet ﷺ was buried within a pre-existent room therefore it is a different scenario and not proof for constructing a tomb or bayt post burial. This reasoning is false, because if the prohibition is true, it would be directed at the structure and not the timing of construction. They could have simply destroyed the structure over the grave to adhere to the condition of the narration.The actions of the salaf instead shows that they on the contrary rebuilded and expanded the structue, thereby clearly refuting such claims:

Narrated ‘Urwa: When the wall fell on them (i.e. graves) during the caliphate of Al-Walid bin ‘Abdul Malik, the people started repairing it, and a foot appeared to them. The people got scared and thought that it was the foot of the Prophet. No-one could be found who could tell them about it till I (‘Urwa) said to them, “By Allah, this is not the foot of the Prophet but it is the foot of Umar.” [Sahih Bukhari Volume 2, Book 23, Number 474]

If the salaf, being the best of generation, had no problem with rebuilding it then, neither should the — who all this while self labelled themselves as followers of the opinion of salaf, be hypocritically abondoning the salaf when it goes against their claims.

Moreover, the implication of such an argument is that it is permitted to bury a person within a mosque or structure, and the only condition to be satisified is that the tomb or mosque should be in existance prior to burying an individual. So by this argument itself, it becomes permissible to construct a tomb first and then later shift a persons body inside the tomb or even within a masjid.This opinion of theirs as we see is nothing but a mockery of themselves and their incoherent claims.

Be realistic in life, this duniya is temporary and fani what lies is the ahkirat –realistic and baqi/eternal.

Free from duniya =qurb e elahi

When I want to talk to allah I say prayers and when I want that he talk to me I recite quran- Hazrath Ali(ra)

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