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What is the ruling on building mosques over graves, and what is the refutation of those who permit it, citing the action of Abu Baseer during the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and interpreting the hadith "May Allah curse the Jews and Christians, for they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship" to mean prostrating to graves, not building over them? And did Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar overlook mentioning this matter in "Fath Al-Bari" as claimed?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Building mosques over graves is forbidden and contrary to the guidance of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Texts have been successively transmitted prohibiting this practice and cursing its perpetrators. Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami clarified that taking graves as places of worship is among the major sins. As for the argument based on the story of building a mosque over the grave of Abu Basir, Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Al-Albani refuted its authenticity from its very origin. Even if it were authentic, it cannot be used to contradict the explicit hadiths that prohibit it, for two reasons: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was not aware of it and did not approve of it. If he did know and approve, it would be interpreted as having occurred before the explicit prohibition that came at the end of the Prophet's life, peace and blessings be upon him. Interpreting the hadiths of cursing as referring to prostration to the grave does not prevent the prohibition of building mosques over graves, which is established in the successively transmitted hadiths.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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