Advice for the Muslim

that Allâhu ta’âlâ’s beloved servants -even every dead personhears
in their graves, Muslims visit their graves, pray to Allâhu
ta’âlâ through their mediation and ask them to intercede for them.
The dead cannot do whatever they wish. And the living cannot do
whatever they wish, either. But, Allâhu ta’âlâ promised that He
would accept the prayers of His beloved servants, first of all His
prophets’ prayers. Muslims do not ask prophets (alaihimu ’s-salâtu
wa ’s-salâm) and awliyâ’ (rahimahum-Allâhu ta’âlâ) to do
something, but to pray to Allâhu ta’âlâ to give something. Awliyâ’
do hear what the visitors to their graves ask, and they pray to
Allâhu ta’âlâ to give them what they ask for, and Allâhu ta’âlâ
accepts the prayers of awliyâ’.
The following passage is translated from the 121st page of Ibn
Hajar al-Makkî al-Hîtamî’s (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ) work Zawâjir
to expose the lies of the Wahhâbite book. Ibn Hajar, after quoting
hadîths, writes:
“Some Shâfi’î scholars, taking the preceding hadîths into
account, concluded that one of the six grave sins was to make
graves masjids. The reason was that those who made prophets’
graves masjids were condemned in a hadîth, which also informed
that those who made the graves of sulahâ’ masjids would be
[regarded as] the worst of men on the Last Day. ‘To make the
graves masjids’ means ‘to perform salât facing those graves.’ It was
for this reason that the Shâfi’î scholars declared that it was harâm
to perform salât facing the grave of a prophet or a walî, as a sign of
respect for him. For such an act to be harâm, firstly, the one in the
grave should have been an uncommon, esteemed person, and
secondly, the salât should be intended to be for the dead. Lighting
candles at graves is also harâm if it is for respecting the dead. So is
going round graves. Hence it is inferred that such actions are
makrûh when they are done not as a sign of esteem. Respecting a
grave by prostrating means worshipping it, which is a grave sin,
even kufr. Some Hanbalî scholars said, ‘Performing salât by graves
as a tribute is a grave sin and causes kufr. It is a must to demolish
such tombs.’ ”
Ibn Hajar al-Makkî al-Hîtâmî (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ), in the
Egypt edition of his book Al-fâtâwâ al-kubrâ al-fiqhiyya, wrote in
the chapter on janâza, “Domed tombs should not be built on
graves in public graveyards where many corpses are buried. If
already built, they should be demolished. It is not permissible to
demolish the domed tombs in private graveyards for the purpose
of burying a new corpse in them.” On page 17, he wrote: “It is
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