[OceanSoul]

Aisha (radhiAllahu 'anha) reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said during his illness from which he did not recover, “Allah has cursed the Jews and Christians who have taken the graves of their Prophets as places of worship.” She said, “If it were not for that, his grave would have been in an open place but it was feared that it would be taken as a mosque.”

[Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Number 1079]

Salaamu 'aleykoum,

I pray you are all in the best of health & imaan. I just came across this hadith above. Is it a strong hadith? Could anyone explain it please? Forgive me for my ignorance, but it's a little confusing.

Thank you in advance.

[JoeDacky]

OceanSoul, on 25 May 2012 - 01:32 PM, said:

Aisha (radhiAllahu 'anha) reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said during his illness from which he did not recover, “Allah has cursed the Jews and Christians who have taken the graves of their Prophets as places of worship.” She said, “If it were not for that, his grave would have been in an open place but it was feared that it would be taken as a mosque.”

[Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Number 1079]

Salaamu 'aleykoum,

I pray you are all in the best of health & imaan. I just came across this hadith above. Is it a strong hadith? Could anyone explain it please? Forgive me for my ignorance, but it's a little confusing.

Thank you in advance.

Salaam,

The Prophet of Christians is Jesus (a.s). Where is his grave? Likewise, where is the grave of Moses (a.s.)?

[OceanSoul]

JoeDacky, on 25 May 2012 - 08:09 PM, said:

Salaam,

The Prophet of Christians is Jesus (a.s). Where is his grave? Likewise, where is the grave of Moses (a.s.)?

Wa aleykoum salaam. JazakAllah khayr for your clarification!

[seeker]

JoeDacky, on 25 May 2012 - 08:09 PM, said:

Salaam,

The Prophet of Christians is Jesus (a.s). Where is his grave? Likewise, where is the grave of Moses (a.s.)?

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

[JoeDacky]

seeker, on 26 May 2012 - 11:51 AM, said:

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Salaam,

Brother, if Sayyiddina Isa (a.s) was taken into heaven, he would have had no grave so why would The Messenger of Allah (a.s) describe something that doesnt exist? Even if the Christians were worshipping at a grave then it certainly wasnt that of Sayyidina Isa (a.s)

Secondly the grave of Sayyidina Musa (a.s) is unknown according to the book of Deuteronomy itself.

I'm not at all saying the message of the hadith is not true, I'm just curious to know what exactly is meant here. Perhaps your goodself or somebody else can shed light on this, bearing in mind its a hadith from Sahih Muslim?

[seeker]

JoeDacky, on 26 May 2012 - 10:57 PM, said:

Salaam,

Brother, if Sayyiddina Isa (a.s) was taken into heaven, he would have had no grave so why would The Messenger of Allah (a.s) describe something that doesnt exist? Even if the Christians were worshipping at a grave then it certainly wasnt that of Sayyidina Isa (a.s)

Secondly the grave of Sayyidina Musa (a.s) is unknown according to the book of Deuteronomy itself.

I'm not at all saying the message of the hadith is not true, I'm just curious to know what exactly is meant here. Perhaps your goodself or somebody else can shed light on this, bearing in mind its a hadith from Sahih Muslim?

Perhaps the Holy Sepulchre could come under this, perhaps not. Certainly, they do believe it to be the place of his grave, albeit temporarily. Maybe it covers the sites of the apostles' graves, or the grave of Abraham in Hebron, or the many sites which the Roman Catholics take as shrines (their concept of prophet is not like ours... They believe the apostles to be higher than prophets in some regards).

From my basic, elementary, no-knowledge reading, I notice something... Huzoor (saw) did not say "Do not take my grave as a place of worship", as this is too vast and by that vast definition what happens today is forbidden! The fact that it is inside a mosque would be wrong! Do we not go to his grave to worship Allah? Do we not want to make dua in that blessed place? Rather, he (saw) specified certain types of Jews and Christians. How do they worship at graves? And how do we worship at graves? Roman Catholics pray TO graves. The Muslim when he goes to Masjid an-Nabawi ash-Sharif, we worship God alone. We send peace on the Prophet - as a worship to God. We may even ask the Prophet (saw) for intercession - but this is not worship, as intercession is spoken about in many places for many people. Even if we happen to be standing facing the blessed grave during Salah, not for a moment are we intending to worship God - it just happens to be that this is what is in front of us at the time. The RC however, will go to these graves and prostrate to them and pray to them. There may be certain types of Jews who do or have done in the past something similar at Hebron or elsewhere, Allahu A'lam.

[OceanSoul]

I came across an article on sunnipath.com by coincidence and found this:

Quote

Prostrating to the graves


It is not allowed to prostrate to the grave through veneration. Hence, it is strongly condemned by all scholars, as clearly stated by Imam Ahmed Rada (May Allah be pleased with him) in his book named: ?al-Zubdah al-Zakiyyah fi Tahreem sujud al-Tahiyyah?.


The question is whether one is allowed to pray salah in a mosque with a grave. Many Mosques in the Islamic world are with a grave of a Prophet or either a pious.


The Prophet (May Allah send peace and blessings upon him) said: "May Allah curse the Jews and Christians; they have taken the tombs of their Prophets as places of worship." (Bukhari, Ahmed). Though, this hadith may imply the meaning that salah is not allowed in such mosques, Ibn Hajar Haythmi gives the pure meaning of this narration in his words:


?Taking a grave as a place of worship means to pray on the grave or towards it. The impermissibility, however, applies exclusively to the grave of someone respected... under the two conditions:

a. That the grave is of someone who is honoured and esteemed;

b. And that the prayer is performed towards or on the grave with the intention of gaining the blessing of it, or out of reverence for it." (al-Zawajir, Reliance w21)

This is the position of the Hanafi and Shafi`i schools.

http://qa.sunnipath....D=3185&CATE=115

In the hadith I quoted from Sahih Muslim, Hazrat Aisha (radhiAllahu 'anha) adds that for this reason, it was feared RasoolAllah (sallAllahu 'aleyhi wa sallam)'s place of burial would be taken as a mosque and therefore it was not left in the open. I found another article on sunnipath.com explaining the hadith but again without this section. Perhaps the problem implied is not simply building a mosque over it but that it was feared the early Muslims would not carry out appropriate actions (like the People of the Book) at the graves of the pious and Prophets.