What is a shrine?
A monument builds on the tomb of the pious and people with great piety, people who take Allah as their friends and are of great virtue. Building a shrine or a dargah and visiting such places for spiritual upliftment is completely haram in Islam because they are polytheistic in nature and are derived from pagans. Historically speaking Prophet Muhammad (صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم) destroyed all the shrines in Mecca and there is no denying this fact.
The Prophet (صلّى الله عليه وآله وسلّم) repeatedly condemned grave-worshipping in the following authentic Hadith:
1. “Beware of those who preceded you and used to take the graves of their prophets and righteous men as places of worship, but you must not take graves as mosques; I forbid you to do that.” (Sahih Muslim)
2. “May Allah’s curse be on the Jews for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets.” (Sahih Bukhari)
3. “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets.” (Sahih Bukhari)
4. “If any religious man dies amongst those people they would build a place of worship at his grave and make these pictures in it. They will be the worst creature in the sight of Allah on the Day of Resurrection.” (Sahih Bukhari)
5. “Do not sit on the graves and do not pray facing towards them.” (Sahih Bukhari)
All these hadith are authentic and point out that it is clearly forbidden to visit the shrines or pray around them yet people often contradict and visit the graves of the pious and righteous and build buildings over them and claim that these people will intercede for them on the day of Ressurection. Wallahi my dear brothers and sisters, they don’t have that power! They don’t have that power!
The grave worshipping came into existence during the time of Prophet Nuh (as).
A pious man passed away and Shytan (DEVIL) convinced the townspeople to build a shrine over his grave, to pay due respects to him. He urged them to make his idols to keep his memory. And convinced them to pray to him and hence started the phase of idol-worshipping.
Iblees misguided people into shirk. They started with respecting the pious and ended up asking him for their needs and forgetting Allah. Indeed indulging in shrik.
It’s never too late my brothers and sisters to think logically and reasonably and avoid visiting shrines.
It is not permissible and leads to shrik.
May Allah Forgive us.
