Chapter Six: The reprehensibility of praying in mosques constructed over graves … 162
Intending to pray in a mosque built over a grave renders the prayer null and void … 163
It is reprehensible to pray in the aforementioned mosques even when one’s purpose has nothing to do with the grave … 164
St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is frequented by Christians for worship because it houses Peter’s tomb! … 165
Statements from a number of scholars on the issue … 166
Ibn Taymiyyah’s clarification of what it means to designate a place as a mosque; that the ban on turning a grave into a mosque is a precaution to block the means to polytheism; and his preference for allowing prayers that have specific causes during the times of dislike … 166
Further texts declaring prayers in mosques erected over graves invalid according to the Hanbalī school, together with a precise discussion of what constitutes a cemetery … 170
Imam Ahmad’s view that praying in a mosque situated among graves is reprehensible … 170