Chapter Three
Building Mosques over Graves is a Major Sin

Now that the specific sense of “taking” (ittikhādh) in the aforementioned hadiths has been clarified, it is appropriate for us to pause briefly over those reports to determine, with the aid of the scholars’ explanations, the legal ruling that follows from them. I therefore say:

Anyone who reflects on those noble hadiths will see—beyond any shadow of doubt—that the practice in question is forbidden, indeed one of the gravest of major sins. The reason is that the texts pronounce a curse upon those who do it and describe them as “the worst of creation in the sight of Allah, Blessed and Exalted.” Such denunciation could never apply to someone who is merely committing a minor sin, as is self-evident.

The Jurists’ Positions

All four Sunni schools concur that the practice is prohibited, and some have explicitly classified it as a major sin. The details of each school’s view are as follows: