Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with him—narrated: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, cursed the women who visit graves, and those who build places of worship over them and who light them with lamps.” (1) It was transmitted by the compilers of the Sunan.
The ‘compilers of the Sunan’ are Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and Ibn Mājah; al-Nasāʾī did not record it.
“Women who visit graves” refers specifically to females.
“As-suruj” (lamps) are those who kindle lamps at the graves and illuminate them.
General meaning of the ḥadīth: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, invokes Allah’s curse—expulsion from His mercy—upon women who visit graves, because their visits often lead to harms such as wailing, excessive grief, and the temptation of men. He likewise curses those who turn graves into sites of worship or who illuminate them with lamps and lanterns, for this constitutes excess veneration and opens the door to associating partners with Allah through the occupants of those graves.
Relevance to the chapter: The ḥadīth shows that exaggeration regarding graves is forbidden, for it ultimately turns them into idols that are worshipped.
Points derived from the ḥadīth:
- It is prohibited to exaggerate with respect to graves by treating them as places of worship, because this leads to polytheism.