What astonishes any believer who is clear-sighted in his religion is the casual attitude of most jurists toward this perilous issue; to the best of my knowledge they make no explicit reference to it in their books or legal verdicts. For that reason it has proved extremely difficult to convince the blind followers of its validity, despite the clarity of the evidence, for how could they accept it when they—or the majority of them—place the word of their imām, indeed even the word of some later adherent of his, above the word of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ? There is no might nor power except through Allah.

I shall therefore devote special care to citing the statements of the accomplished scholars on this question, so that anyone who consults this book of ours may know that we have introduced nothing novel into the religion and have not misunderstood the hadiths of the Master of the Messengers. Rather, “this is the truth from your Lord, so do not be among those who doubt.”

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah reward him with goodness on behalf of the Muslims—gave this topic particular attention; it is rare to find a book of his in which he does not address it, whether at length or in brief. I shall therefore quote from his writings and legal opinions whatever suits the present discussion, with some abbreviation and summary.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—said in Al-Qāʿida al-jalīla fī al-tawassul wa-l-wasīla:

“To set aside a place as a mosque means dedicating it to the five daily prayers and the like, just as mosques are constructed for that purpose. A site that is made into a mosque is intended solely for the worship of Allah and for supplicating Him, not for calling upon created beings. For that reason the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade turning their graves into mosques with the intention of praying there, just as people deliberately go …”