of the prophets and scholars as mosques.

4 – The Ḥanbalī school: prohibition

The Ḥanbalīs likewise deem it forbidden, as stated in Sharḥ al-Muntahā (1 / 353) and elsewhere. Some of them even declared the prayer invalid in any mosque built over a grave and ruled that such buildings must be demolished. Ibn al-Qayyim, in Zād al-Maʿād (3 / 22) while enumerating the legal rulings and benefits gleaned from the expedition of Tabūk, after mentioning the story of Masjid al-Ḍirār—regarding which Allah, blessed and exalted, forbade His Prophet to pray, and which the Prophet ﷺ therefore razed and burned—said:

“Among these rulings is the burning and demolition of places where Allah and His Messenger are disobeyed, just as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ burned Masjid al-Ḍirār and ordered it demolished, even though prayers were performed there and the name of Allah was invoked. Because its construction was meant to cause harm, to divide the believers, and to serve as a refuge for the hypocrites, every place of this sort must be shut down by the imam (1), either by demolition or by burning it down,”