As a consequence of such silence and such ignorance, matters have reached the point where many people now commit deeds that Allah has forbidden and for whose perpetrator He has pronounced a curse—as will be explained shortly. And if only it had stopped there! Worse still, some of them imagine that by doing so they are drawing nearer to Allah. Thus you will see many well-intentioned individuals who love charitable works and the building of mosques spend vast sums to erect a house of worship, yet they set aside within it a grave and stipulate that they themselves be buried there after death.

The latest example known to me—may it be the last, God willing—is the mosque that stands at the head of Baghdad Street on the western side of Damascus, commonly called “Masjid Ba’ira.” His grave now lies inside it. We were informed that the Ministry of Religious Endowments initially objected to his burial there, but we do not know the real reasons that prevented it from carrying out its decision, and so Ba’ira was interred in his own mosque—indeed, in the very direction of prayer itself. To Allah we belong and to Him we return. He alone is the One from whom we seek help in eradicating these and similar abominations.