Thus all of this makes clear that the underlying cause is not the possibility of impurity but rather the fear that graves may be turned into idols. Al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
“I dislike that any created being be so venerated that his grave is turned into a mosque, for fear of trial for him and for those who come after him.” (1)
Abū Bakr al-Athram records this same point in his work Nāsiḫ al-Ḥadīth wa-Mansūkhih, as do other students of Imām Aḥmad and the rest of the scholars, for the grave of the Prophet—or of any righteous person—is not to be exhumed, and a single grave in itself carries no impurity.
The Prophet himself—peace and blessings be upon him—indicated the real reason when he said,
“O Allah, do not allow my grave to become an idol that is worshiped,”
and when he said,
“Those who came before you used to turn graves into places of worship; do not turn them into places of worship.”
Those earlier communities merely took graves as shrines, and there was no impurity at those sites. Muslim relates in his Ṣaḥīḥ, on the authority of Abū Marthad al-Ghanawī, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
“Do not pray facing graves, and do not sit upon them.” (2)(3)
He also said:
“When a righteous man among them died they built a mosque over his grave and fashioned those images in it; such people will be the worst of Allah’s creation on the Day of Resurrection.” (4)
In this ḥadīth he coupled statues with graves.
Moreover, al-Lāt came to be worshiped because people venerated the grave of a righteous man that stood there, and it has been reported that Wadd, Suwāʿ, Yaghūth, Yaʿūq, and Nasr were the names of righteous men who lived between