Q: Does the prohibition of the prayer in a mosque which includes a grave also extend to the funeral prayer conducted in such a mosque?
A: Is this not a prayer? No prayers must be performed in a mosque where there is a grave! It has been narrated by the multitudes (mutawaatir) that the Messenger (sallalaahu ‘alaihi wasallam) has prohibited this! We have gathered these narrations in the book ‘Tahdhir As-Saajid ‘An it-tihaadh Quboorul Masaajid’.
Q: We neither bow nor prostrate in the funeral prayer because there are some reasons ('ilal) for the prohibitions of bowing (ruku') and prostrations (sujud).
Some say that the Prophet (sallalaahu ‘alaihi wasallam) forbade the prayer in a mosque where there is a grave is because it would be said that the one who prays will bow and prostrate to the grave. So, is it correct to understand that if the reason ('illah) does not exist then the ruling on this prohibition would be void?
A: What is this reason ('illah)?
Q: Prostration to the one in the grave.
A: This 'illah is an 'illah 'aqliyyah (a reason based on one's intellect), this is not an 'illah naqliyyah (a reason based on textual evidence) so it is not permissible to base a shar'ee hukm (a legislative verdict) opposing the general texts.
Today, we are disheartened and disappointed with the newest heir to 9/11. Less than a week ago, one of the busiest junctions of New York City was shut down after a policeman discovered a crude bomb of propane and firecrackers inside a parked car.
The US has no lack of violent White Supremacists, neo-Nazis, or eco-terrorists: yet in the early hours after the discovery the media rumour-mill did not hesitate to focus a great, unwavering spotlight on Muslims at large; "Islamic terrorism", rather.
Such is how we are now seen.
Two days later, the police arrest a Pakistani Muslim man named Faisal Shahzad. We don't know his motives, but if he had believed that this was jihad of some sort, then this would be no different from what was said by the ignorants before him.
Divorced from the scholars of the Sunnah, they are those who've hoped to find truth in the angry preaching of renegades. Some, in the West, have come to believe in the reward of inflicting destruction upon the populace; believing that to work for that aim would be a great jihad.
If one public denunciation were enough, this article would not be necessary. Our audience would suffice themselves with the warnings of the scholars, and would not revere the wild and ignorant youths of the pulpits.
Though grossly overlooked and marginalized, the stance of the people of the Sunnah is clear. If the Sunni scholars did not speak out after 9/11; and they surely did; they spoke out after July 7; and if not after that, they surely spoke out after Fort Hood. As indeed, as the noble Prophet (salla Allah 'alaihi wassalam) said, as collected by Imam Muslim:
“Whoever among you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand [by taking action]; if he cannot, then with his tongue [by speaking out]; and if he cannot, then with his heart [by at least hating it and believing that it is wrong], and that is the weakest of faith.”
There is no just cause claimed here by the renegades, there is no jihad in the murder of women and children, no jihad in taking hostages and detonating bombs to inflict suffering on a populace. After 9/11, the Mufti of Saudi Arabia said,
"Indeed, Allah, free from all imperfections has forbidden oppression on His own Self, and He has also forbidden it for His slaves, as He says in this hadith qudsi: 'O My Servants, indeed I have forbidden oppression upon Myself and I have made it forbidden among yourselves, hence to not oppress each other'...these events that have taken place in the United States, and whatever else like these: plane hijacking, hostage-taking, killing innocents, all without a just cause: this is nothing but a manifestation of injustice, oppression and tyranny which the Islamic Shari'ah neither sanctions nor accepts--rather, it is explicitly forbidden and is amongst the greatest of sins".
Yet, the renegades prevail and the young; like the fifteen year old Ayman al-Zawahiri coming to revere the recently executed Syed Qutb, and like the youths on the streets of Luton and Brixton being recruited; follow.
Such is the error of the youth.
"They are more like the Qaraamitah," says Sheikh al-Fawzaan regarding the renegades, "...Because the actions of the Qaraamitah are secret, based on secrecy and underhandedness and what these people do today is also based on secrecy."
[these renegades] are even more violent and extreme than the original Khawaarij. They did not destroy buildings and their residents...they used to fight on the battlefield despite their ignorance [of their cause]. But they did not collapse buildings on everyone inside them--women, children, the innocent, those at peace with Muslims, those who have a treaty with the Muslims, and others guaranteed safety... this is worse and more violent..."
Our stance is clear: as adherents of the pure understanding of the Quran and Sunnah, we decry and denounce terrorism of all forms. We are not the compromising "moderates", those darlings of the Western media, and we have no desire to conceal and twist the truth to appease anyone: We denounce and decry it because such acts of violence has been forbidden by the Quran and Sunnah. We denounce Faisal Shahzad's attempt on a civilian population as oppression and tyranny with the same anger with which we denounce the violent attacks on Moscow, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv; and with the same indignation with which we denounce and mourn the Zionist entity's tyrannical oppression of our Muslim brethren.
