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The city where I live has many shrines (structures made on the graves of some religious people) and people (both men and women) in large numbers (tens of thousands) visit those shrines and also offer their prayers there (Salat). Is it allowed in Islam?

And I guess it's answer might be related to this Hadith :

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "May Allah's curse be on the Jews for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets." (source : http://sunnah.com/bukhari/8/86 )

but what does this exactly mean? places of worship..

places of worshiping whom? ALLAH (SWT) or the grave?

Kidnly, Clarify.

2 Answers 2

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At first pay attention that those people who you mentioned, going to this shrines to offer their prayers (Salat) to Allah.so, they won't worship graves there.

And "places of worship" in this hadith, means places which people worship graves there instead of Allah.

A fine point of conscience we should not forget is that God "Almighty" should be worshiped and obeyed, but the Prophet "PBUH" and Salehin just should be obeyed;only God has the right of be worshiped and he doesn't have any partner.

Prayer, trust, ask for assistance and help-seeking for problem resolution, healing diseases and...are Contents of worship and are shared only with God, And the authority to reject and acceptance of them is for God.

Solving problems isn't the right of Salehin, prophets and messengers, Also they couldn't do that,too .So worshiping them for Solving problems is shirk also causes God wrath.

In this regard, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said to Ibn Abbas:

"إذا سألتَ فاسأل الله، وإذا استعنت فاستعن بالله" (al-Jami` as-Sahih by Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi)

If you ask for something, ask it only from Allah;and if you will help, request it from God!"

Pay attention to this prayer of Prophet (PBUH)

"اللهم لا تجعل قبرى وثنا يصلى إليه فإنه اشتد غضب الله على قوم اتخذوا قبور أنبيائهم مساجد "('Ata ibn Yasar,ak raja malek)

"O Allah, do not make my grave an idol to be worshipped after me!"

Surely the Lord gets angry of who makes their Prophet 's grave,place of worship.

Another hadith says:

ألا وإن من كان قبلكم كانوا يتخذون قبور أنبيائهم و صالحيهم مساجد ألا فلا تتخذوا" القبور مساجد إنى أنهاكم عن ذلك"(Sahih Muslim)

Be warned, there were some of you who already put their prophet and salehin 's graves, worship places and I would prohibit you from doing this.

Prophet (PBUH) because of Grave Worship danger, not only inhibit but also to show the ugliness of this action, curse the Jews- the first innovation grave worship makers-:

"قاتل الله اليهود اتخذوا قبور أنبيائهم مساجد"(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"May Allah's curse be on the Jews for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets."

Built the places of worship (mosque) at the graves of their Prophets means making graves, a place for worshiping which is wrong Because mosques are places which people present worshiping to Allah not others. And Prophet (PBUH) Curse of Jewish people because they attention to other than God in their worshiping and worshiped Servants instead of God.

At the end notice that You can ask salehin and Prophet to pray on behalf of you to Allah to solve your problems, but you cannot ask them to solve your problems(which is called tawassul (Recourse) ).

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  • thankyou for the explaination @beautiful mind! but i am still a bit confused with this. My exact question Offering Prayer [Salat - (to worship Allah)] at a (Shrine) Grave of a religious personality Is it prohibited or allowed?
    – saibbyweb
    Jun 24, 2014 at 7:32
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    It is allowed only if you worship Allah Subahnutallah. If you go to shrines asking for solution for your problem rather than Allah, then it is prohibited. You can ask them to pray on behalf of you to Allah to solve your problems, but you cannot ask them to solve your problems. Jun 24, 2014 at 12:18
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    @Saibbyweb You're welcome.as iOS Dev said;if they just worship Allah in shrines and just asking Allah to solve their problems,it 's allowed. Jun 24, 2014 at 15:05
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The Hadith that you have mentioned reads as follows:

قَاتَلَ اللَّهُ الْيَهُودَ اتَّخَذُوا قُبُورَ أَنْبِيَائِهِمْ مَسَاجِدَ

literally: “God fought with the Jews; they took the graves of their prophets as places of prostration (mosques)”.

It does not say anything about “building” places of worship, but only about using graves as a place of prayer.

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  • What do you want explained? The Arabic grammar or the implications of the hadith?
    – aasheq
    May 1, 2015 at 14:58
  • I wish to hear about the Hadith further, so "they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets.", to whom are they worshiping? God or the prophets? May 1, 2015 at 15:01
  • The word "built" is not in the text. The on-line translation is wrong.
    – aasheq
    May 1, 2015 at 15:02
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    It does not even say that. I tried to translate it absolutely literally: "they took the graves of their prophets as masajid". It does not say that they worshipped the people in the graves.
    – aasheq
    May 1, 2015 at 15:07
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    I understand it to mean that it is all right to build a grave for prophets, but that you should not use a grave as a mosque.
    – aasheq
    May 1, 2015 at 15:09

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