so much so that he forbade praying in graveyards altogether, even when the worshipper has no intention of seeking the site’s blessing by his prayer.

But should a person purposefully pray at graves in order to obtain blessing from that spot, this is outright opposition to Allah and His Messenger, a clear contravention of His religion, and the invention of a form of worship for which Allah, exalted be He, has given no permission.

9 – Ibn al-Qayyim said: “In short, anyone who is familiar with shirk, its causes, and its avenues will conclude—without the slightest doubt—that the Prophet’s emphasis, the curse, and the prohibition were not because the soil is defiled by the remains of the dead. Rather, they were out of fear that people might gradually slip into venerating the graves themselves or worshipping those buried in them. By Allah, it was through this very gateway that Satan led the devotees of Yaghuth, Ya‘uq, and Nasr astray, and it is through it that he has misled idol-worshippers from the earliest times until the Day of Resurrection.”

10 – Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Baz said: “Placing flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is an innovation and an excess in matters related to graves. It resembles what earlier communities did with their righteous dead by erecting symbols and adopting them as emblems. Over time, such a practice is feared to become a stepping-stone to building domes over those graves, seeking blessing from them, and taking their occupants as patrons instead of Allah.”