Chapter: The stern warning against one who worships Allah at the grave of a righteous man—so what, then, if he worships that man himself?

In the Ṣaḥīḥ collection it is reported from ʿĀʾishah that Umm Salamah once described to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ a church she had seen in Abyssinia and the images it contained. He said, “Those people: whenever a righteous man—or a righteous servant—died among them, they would build a mosque over his grave and set up those images inside it. Such people are the worst of Allah’s creation.” (1)

Thus, they combined two temptations: the temptation of graves and the temptation of images.

Relevance of this chapter to the Book of Monotheism: It clarifies that worshipping Allah at a grave is a pathway to shirk that nullifies tawḥīd.

Biographical note on Umm Salamah: She is the Mother of the Believers Hind bint Abī Umayyah al-Makhzūmiyyah al-Qurashiyyah; d. 62 AH.

“She mentioned it to the Prophet ﷺ”: that is, during the illness that led to his death.

kanīsah (church): with a fatḥa on the kāf and a kasra on the nūn; it refers to a Christian place of worship.