Likewise, explaining the prohibition on prayer in graveyards by the impurity of the soil is weak. The unrestricted prohibition concerning graveyards, the prohibition on taking graves as places of worship, and similar prohibitions show that the reason is the risk of polytheism and resemblance to the polytheists.

Moreover, the impurity of graveyard soil is itself questionable, since it depends on “the question of transformation.” The site of the Mosque of Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had been a graveyard for polytheists, containing palm trees and ruins. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered the palm trees to be cut down and used to form the mosque’s wall facing the direction of prayer. He ordered the ruins to be levelled and the graves to be exhumed.

This was thus an exhumed graveyard in which polytheists had been buried. Once the dead had been exhumed, it was made into a mosque, with the remaining soil left in place. Had that soil been impure, he would have had to remove the impure soil from the mosque. This would apply especially if pure soil had become mixed with impure soil: enough would have had to be removed to ensure that the impurity was gone. Yet he neither did this nor commanded people to avoid that soil or remove whatever of it came into contact with their bodies and clothes.

It is therefore clear that the ruling depends on the visible presence of graves, not on the presumed impurity of the soil. Furthermore, for anyone who explains the prohibition by impurity, the most this would entail is regarding prayer as disliked where impurity is merely possible, as did those who regarded prayer in graveyards, bathhouses, and camels’ resting places as disliked but did not