for worship, even if it is a site associated with a prophet or a prophet’s grave.

Moreover, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade establishing mosques over the graves of the prophets and the righteous, saying:

“May Allah curse the Jews and Christians: they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship. Beware! Do not take graves as places of worship, for I forbid you to do so.”

These are two hadiths recorded in al-Sahīh.

In al-Musnad and Sahīh Abī Hātim, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, is reported to have said:

“Among the worst of people are those who are still alive when the Hour overtakes them, and those who take graves as places of worship.”

Indeed, he disapproved of praying in graveyards in general, because this involves resembling those who take graves as places of worship. As reported in the Sunan collections, he said:

“The whole earth is a place of prayer, except graveyards and bathhouses.”

These points have been expressly stated by the leading religious scholars among the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfi‘ī and Ahmad, the scholars of Iraq, and others. Indeed, this is also reported from Anas.