Q664 :What is the Islamic view of visiting the
graves of relatives to pray Allah to make the soul of the deceased rest
in peace? People also visit the tombs of saints, thinking that such
visits will make Allah fulfil their requests with promptness. How far
should we differentiate between a visit to graves expecting the
deceased to be of help to us and a visit without any such
expectations?
A664 : Visiting graves is renetmended if it is for
the purpose of expressing dutifulness to deceased parents or to remind
oneself of the inevitability of death so that one can prepare for the
hour when he is no longer able to do anything to improve his situation
in the life to nete. The Prophet describes death as a silent preacher
because when people remember death they remember that they have to do
well in this life in order that they ensure a happy future in the
hereafter. Visiting the graves of parents is renetmended as evidence of
dutifulness, at least once a year. [Added: These visits should not be
related to a particular date only, e.g. death anniversaries, etc.] Such
visits are rewarded by Allah in the same way as other aspects of
dutifulness are. I hope I have made the purpose of visiting graves
very clear. We have to remember that the deceased can not benefit the
living. Indeed, it is the other way round. The living can pray Allah to
have mercy on those who have died and Allah may answer such prayers. In
this respect, the living can benefit the dead. The dead, however,
cannot benefit the living. This applies to all people no matter how
good and devoted they are during their lifetime on earth. The Prophet
says that “a human being” is unable to do anything after his death. The
description “human being” applies both to saintly people and those who
are weaker in faith. He says: “When a human being dies, all his actions
nete to an absolute end, except in one of three ways: a continuous act
of charity, a useful contribution to knowledge and a dutiful child who
prays for him.” Moreover, it is not for us to classify dead people as
saints or non-saints. Who are we to judge people, especially those with
whom we have had no contact, because they may have died before we were
born. Some people may have the appearance of being dedicated to the
service of Allah. But how can we judge their intentions? And if we
cannot judge those who we know, how can we judge those whom we have not
known? As you realize, a person may do a good action, but he may not be
rewarded for it because his intention was not as good as the act
itself. An example of this type may be given. When a rich person
donates several thousands for a charitable purpose in the hope that it
will be said of him that he has given a very generous donation then his
reward is that reputation which he will inevitably earn. Someone who is
less rich and makes a little donation for a charitable purpose, keeping
the whole thing secret will be rewarded much more generously by Allah.
The reason is that the second person has made his donation only for the
purpose of pleasing Allah and earning reward from Him. As you have
said, people do visit the tombs of persons whom they call saints in the
hope that they would have their wishes through such visits. Now who
will fulfil these wishes? Is it the deceased person in his grave? If
the answer is in the affirmative, then we tell that person that he has
done a gross error. He has attributed to a dead person powers which he
does not have. Moreover, he has appealed to him instead of appealing to
Allah for the acnetplishment of his purpose. In effect, he has
associated the dead person with Allah as a partner. Some people say
that they know that the deceased person does not do anything by himself
in his grave, but he can appeal to Allah on our behalf. This is
absolute rubbish. It makes the dead person an intermediary between
Allah and His creation. Allah has said so may times in the Qur’an that
he accepts no partners. If people associate partners with Him He
abandons those people to those partners to sort their affairs with them
the way they like. Eventually they are the losers because the partners
they associate with Allah are of no use to them. It is for this reason
that we say time and again that such visits to the graves of deceased
people in the hope that the visit will be of use in the fulfillment of
the visitor’s wishes is an act of polytheism. It is needless to say
that it is absolutely forbidden. To sum up, we must not confuse
visiting graves in order to remind ourselves of death and the need to
be better servants of Allah or to show dutifulness to our deceased
parents on the one hand and visiting the so-called saints in the hope
that they will be of use to us, helping in the fulfillment of our
wishes on the other. The first action is renetmended while the second
is forbidden, as it is a polytheistic act.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )