Response to the first objection:

As for the first objection, it may be answered in three ways:

First: The sound, well-established principle in uṣūl states that the law revealed to those before us is not, in itself, binding upon us. Many proofs attest to this (1), among them the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “I have been given five things that no prophet before me was given… (he listed them, and the last of them was:) In the past a prophet was sent only to his own people, whereas I have been sent to all humanity.” (2)

Once this is clear, we are in no way obliged to follow what the verse mentions—even if it did indicate that building a mosque over a grave was lawful for those before us.

Second: Suppose, for argument’s sake, that the correct view is the saying, “The law of those before us is law for us.” Even its proponents, however, restrict this to cases where nothing in our own law—