“What this shows is that every visible trace of the grave of Ishmael—peace be upon him—and of the others has completely vanished; consequently, no argument can be built on it.”

Such is the answer of a keen scholar and an accomplished jurist. It points to what we mentioned earlier: in this discussion only graves that stand above the ground matter. Whatever graves lie buried deep beneath the surface carry no outward legal implication whatsoever; the Sharia is far above issuing rulings on the basis of something like that. By necessity and plain observation we know that the whole earth is the cemetery of the living. As the Most High says, “Have We not made the earth a receptacle—of the living and the dead?” And al-Shaʿbi remarked, “Its underside is for your dead, and its surface for your living.”(1)

A poet said:
“Friend, our graves already crowd the wide expanse—
so where are the graves of the people of ʿĀd?”