Muslim likewise relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ from Jundub ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Bajalī (1) who said: “I heard the Prophet ﷺ five days before he passed away declaring: ‘I disclaim before Allah that I should take any one of you as a close friend (2). Allah has already taken me as a Friend, just as He took Abraham as a Friend. Were I to choose a close friend from among my community, I would have chosen Abū Bakr as my close friend. Beware! Those who came before you used to turn the graves of their prophets and righteous men into places of worship. Beware, therefore—do not turn graves into places of worship. I (3) forbid you to do that.’” (4)

The Prophet ﷺ thus described how those before us would convert the graves of the prophets (5) and the righteous into mosques, and he immediately followed up (6) that description with the directive—introduced by the particle fa—that graves are not to be taken as mosques, affirming that he ﷺ forbids us (7) from such a practice. This indicates that their practice is the reason for our prohibition, either as something that makes the prohibition manifest or (8) as a direct cause necessitating it. Accordingly, their deeds are a sign (9) and a proof that Allah forbids us (10) from them, or else they themselves constitute the effective cause for the prohibition.