No sect among the people of misguided desires is more deceitful than they, nor is anyone further removed from pure tawḥīd. They even raze the very mosques of Allah—those in which His Name is mentioned—rendering them devoid of the daily congregational prayers and the Friday gathering, while at the same time they restore and adorn the tomb-shrines built over graves, sites that Allah and His Messenger have forbidden to adopt. In His Book, Allah—glorified be He—has only commanded the building and upkeep of mosques, not shrines.
So He, the Most High, says:
“Who does greater wrong than one who bars the mosques of Allah that His Name be mentioned in them and strives for their ruin?” (al-Baqarah 2:114)
—and He did not say: “the shrines of Allah.”
He also says:
“Say: My Lord has commanded justice, and that you set your faces toward Him at every mosque.” (al-Aʿrāf 7:29)
—and He did not say: “at every shrine.”
And He says:
“It is not for the polytheists to maintain the mosques of Allah while they bear witness against themselves to disbelief… Only those who believe in Allah and the Last Day, establish prayer, give zakāh, and fear none but Allah, it is they who are expected to be rightly guided.” (al-Tawbah 9:17–18)
—and He did not say: “the shrines of Allah.” Rather, shrines are frequented only by those who fear someone other than Allah and hope in someone other than Allah; none maintains them except a person tainted by some degree of shirk.
Allah, exalted be He, also says:
“…and [they tear down] mosques in which the Name of Allah is much mentioned.” (al-Ḥajj 22:40)
And He says:
“In houses which Allah has allowed to be raised and wherein His Name is remembered, there glorify Him morning and evening men whom neither trade nor sale distracts from the remembrance of Allah, the establishment of prayer, and the giving of zakāh. They fear a Day when hearts and eyes will be overturned, so that Allah may reward them for the best of what they have done and increase them out of His bounty; for Allah provides for whom He wills without measure.” (al-Nūr 24:36–38)
And He says:
“And the mosques belong to Allah, so do not invoke anyone along with Allah.” (al-Jinn 72:18)