Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

 

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

salam, if idol worship is haram in islam ,do u think bowing /kissing of graves of our dai is legal 

 

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

 

Answer:

 

Kissing of Dai Graves

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person,  no grave, no prophet,  no imam,  no dai,  nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

 

Umm Salamah, the wife of the Prophet (saws), mentioned the churches she saw in Abyssinia and the pictures they contained to the Messenger of Allah (saws) . The Prophet (saws)  said to her: "These are the people who, when a pious servant or pious man among them dies,  build places of worship upon their graves and put those pictures in it.  They are the worst of the whole creation in the Sight of Allah."

Related by al-Bukhari, Muslim, and an-Nasai .

 

The Messenger of Allah (saws) strictly prohibited the believers to build a structure over the graves of their deceased, wiping their hands over it, kissing it, revering it, invoking it, circumambulating around it, or making it a shrine or a tomb or a place of worship in any form or manner.

 

In the Days of Ignorance before the advent of Prophet Mohamed (saws), the pagan and mushrik Quraysh of Makkah used to make images of the pious amongst them and place them in the Holy Kaabah, commemorate their birth and death days, sacrifice in their names, revere them, invoke them, and worship them. They would makes tombs and shrines over the graves of the pious amongst their ancestors, invoke the dead in their graves for their needs and at times of afflictions, sacrifice for them, commemorate their birth and death days, and worship them.  These pagans believed that the pious amongst them had special status with Allah Subhanah, and they used them as their intercessors or ‘shofoa’ to get closer to Allah, and invoke them to get their supplications answered from Allah Subhanah.  This format of invoking images or graves or anyone other than Allah Subhanah Alone in the ‘unseen’ is precisely what has been described and termed as the most heinous and abominations of sins in the Glorious Quran: ‘shirk’!

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 10  Surah Yunus  verse 18:

These people serve beside Allah those which can neither harm nor benefit them, and say, “These are our ‘shofa’a’ (intercessors) with Allah!”  (O Mohammed), tell them, “Do you wish to inform Allah of that thing which He knows not in the heavens, or in the earth?”  He is absolutely free from,  and exalted above the shirk that they commit.

 

 Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 16 Surah Nahl verse 20-21:

All the other beings,  whom the people invoke with Allah,  create nothing!   Nay,  they are themselves created.   They are DEAD,  not living,  and they do not at all know themselves when they shall again be raised to life!

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 18 Surah Kahf verse 102:

What?  Do these people,  who have disbelieved,  presume that they would make My servants their ‘auliyaas’ besides Me?   We have prepared Hell for the hospitality of such people.

 

The Messenger of Allah (saws) strictly prohibited the believers from any sort of idol, image or grave worship….for invocation and worship is the Sole and Exclusive Right of the One Who Created, Allah Subhanah Alone.

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 39  Surah Zumur verse 2-3:

So worship Allah Alone,  making your religion His Eclusively.   Beware!  Religion is the Exclusive Right of Allah.  As for those who have taken other ‘auliyas’ with Allah (and justify their this conduct by saying): “We serve them only that they may bring us closer to Allah.”   Allah will surely judge between them concerning all that in which they differ.   Allah does not show guidance to any liar and denier of the Truth.

 

The kissing of a grave of one who is deceased in reverence, or in the belief that it is holy, or believing that the deceased can harm or benefit anyone in any way, etc. are all forms and manifestations of the heinous and unforgivable crime of ‘shirk’, and thus absolutely forbidden for the believers who sincerely believe in Allah and the Last Day.

 

Allah says in the Quran: Chapter 4 Surah An-Nisa Verse 48

Shirk (associating other deities with Allah) is the only sin that Allah does not forgive, and He forgives, whomsoever He pleases, sins other than this.  For whosoever associates any other partner with Allah, does indeed forge a big lie and commits the most heinous sin.

 

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verse 72:

Whoever commits ‘shirk’ (invoking anything with Allah),  Allah shall forbid for him Paradise,  and Hell shall be his abode.  And for such wrong doers there will be no one to help.

 

If one trusts,  obeys,  and follows the guidance and commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws),   one can be assured of never ever being misled;   but if one believes,  obeys and follows any other guidance,  other than that of Allah and His Messenger (saws),  one can be assured of being led astray.  

 

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone.  Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

 

 

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

 

Burhan