Chapter Six

The Reprehensibility of Performing Prayer in Mosques Built over Graves

Once we had finished answering the previous objections—and once it became clear to the respected reader that the prohibition of building mosques over graves is a firmly established ruling that will remain in force until the Day of Resurrection—and after we had set out the wisdom behind that prohibition, it is fitting that we turn to another issue that necessarily follows from that ruling: the legal status of performing prayer in these mosques erected over graves.

We pointed out earlier (p. 36) that prohibiting the construction of mosques on graves entails, by even stronger reason, prohibiting prayer within them, for when the means are forbidden, the end is all the more so. It follows, then, that prayer in such mosques is forbidden, and—as is well known among the scholars (1)—a prohibition in a context like this renders the act invalid. Imam Ahmad and others accordingly ruled that a prayer offered there is invalid.