A translation of this fatwa from Naseem al-Sham
 |
| قبة الامام الشافعي |
Building
Over Graves and the Ruling for Demolishing Them
Question:
My
question is for Sheikh Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī. Praise be to Allah, Lord of all
creation, and blessings and peace be upon the one whom was sent as a mercy to
all of creation as well as all of his family and his Companions, āmīn. To proceed: Indeed there are
youths who have been secretly propagating their ideas under the shade of
darkness, and they have been declaring those who visit the graves of the
righteous[1]
to be heretics.[2] It
has reached me (and I am asking this question from Libya) that they may even
call these people disbelievers.[3]
Today, after the collapse of the regime, the country has witnessed what it has
witnessed, and they have come out against us showing a different face, which is
to purify the country of the idolatry[4]
that is embodied in mausoleums and domes. They began by removing them,
demolishing them and flattening them to ground level using heavy equipment, and
maybe explosives and bombs. Likewise, they dig up graves based on the pretext
that it is obligatory to be buried in a Muslim graveyard. The problem has
spread extensively. For example, in the city of Misrata, which is where I live,
they have demolished thirteen domes, each containing a righteous friend of
Allah,[5]
virtuous scholar[6] or
sheikh from the household of the Messenger of Allah. Indeed, it has reached me
that they have even demolished the dome of the revered Companion Abū Sajīf[7]
and dug up his grave. My question is: what is the ruling for building mausoleums
and domes over graves and what is the ruling for demolishing them after they
have been built? And what are we obliged to do in the face of this campaign?
Please, ya Sayyidī, provide the relevant evidences. I ask Allah
to grant you well-being, to increase you from the abundance of His favour and
to reward you with the best of rewards on behalf of this Ummah. We also ask you
for your supplications.
Answer
( from the Great Scholar and Martyr, Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī):
What is
agreed upon is that the best graves are the smoothed down ones, and it is
disliked (makrūh) to raise a grave. Rather, it is preferred
to flatten it and there is no harm in it being a hand span or so above the
ground. There is also no harm in it being raised above the ground with a stone
or something similar. As for placing a building over the grave, if the grave is
in open country or a place that is exposed to damage, i.e. outside the
boundaries of a graveyard, then there is no harm in placing a building or an
iron fence in order to protect it. As for a grave within a graveyard that has
been dedicated as an endowment (waqf) for the deceased to be buried in,
it would be unlawful to place a building over it because that would necessitate
restricting the space around the grave from being used for the purpose that it
was dedicated for. However, if a building would not necessitate such then there
is no harm, such as placing a building around a number of graves belonging to
the same family, as all the land within the building will be occupied by
graves.
Furthermore,
as for digging up a grave, it is not permissible unless it is to wash the
deceased if they were buried without being washed. As for any other reason, it
is not permissible by consensus, even if the deceased were buried without being
prayed over, in which case the situation is rectified by praying over the
person while they are buried in their grave. As for buildings and domes, it is
not permissible to demolish any part of them, with the exception of a building
that takes up land from a graveyard dedicated as an endowment and thus
restricts its use by other people, for such a building is unlawful and must be
demolished.
[This translation is also available from the English Naseem al-Sham site.]
[1] Ar. al-ṣāliḥīn
[2] Ar. tabdīʿ, i.e. they accuse such people of
reprehensible innovation
[3] Ar. takfīr
[4] Ar. shirk
[5] Ar. walī ṣālīḥ
[6] Ar. ʿālim fāḍil
[7] (tn): i.e. Abū Sajīf ibn Qays ibn al-Ḥārith ibn ʿAbbas, may Allah be pleased with
him, who witnessed the Battle of Yarmouk during the khilāfah of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiḍdīq, may Allah be pleased with him
and, and died in Tripoli in what is now modern-day Libya. Please see Imam Ibn Ḥajr al-ʿAsqalānī’s Iṣābah fi Tamyīz al-Ṣaḥābah (Beirut: Dār al-Jayl, 1412/1992), v.7, p.198
for further details.
