And, supposing the prohibition were solely due to ritual impurity, it is well known that the graves of the prophets do not become foul-smelling. Indeed, the prophets’ bodies do not decay, and the soil of their graves is pure. Impurity in front of someone praying does not invalidate his prayer. Those who took graves as places of worship would spread clean coverings beside them, so they did not come into contact with impurity. Moreover, those who explain the prohibition in terms of impurity do not deny this other reason. Al-Shāfiʿī and others mentioned the prohibition against establishing mosques over graves and explained it as a precaution against imitating such practices.

Several scholars of the legal schools—including followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Ahmad, as well as jurists of Kufa—expressly stated the prohibition against building mosques over graves. Several of them explicitly declared it unlawful. There can be no doubt about this in view of the curse pronounced by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and his emphatic prohibition of it.

Taking graves as places of worship encompasses two things: building a mosque over them, or praying beside them without any building. The latter is what he himself and his Companions feared would happen if they buried him in the open: they feared that people would pray beside him, thereby turning his grave into a place of worship.

Mālik’s Muwattaʾ reports that he said:

“O Allah, do not let my grave become an idol that is worshipped.”

This has been transmitted both with connected chains and with chains omitting the Companion. Sunan Abī Dāwūd reports that he said:

“Do not make my grave a place of recurring observance. Send blessings upon me wherever you may be, for your blessings reach me.”

As for the report some people transmit that he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, prayed in Abraham’s mosque or beside Abraham’s grave, this hadith is not regarded as established by