A Comparative Study on the Prohibition of Sitting and Doing Religious Services in Tombs from the Point s of View of Ibn Taymiyyah and the Four Sunni Schools

Abstract

Doing religious services in tombs is one of the controversies among Ibn Taymiyyah and his followers and the Sunni Muslims. Wahhabis believe that the people doing religious services in the tombs of prophets are pagan; they demolish holy tombs, excommunicate and exterminate other Muslims.  Ibn Taymiyyah as the main theorist of excommunicative thinking justifies the excommunication based on some weak arguments like a Hadith related from Aba-Morsad Al-Ghanavi prohibiting religious service in tombs and even sometimes excommunicates the act. The present study, attempts to conduct a comparative study on the issue of doing services in tombs from the point of view of Ibn Taymiyyah and his follower and the four Sunni Schools of jurisprudence. The final conclusion made is that beside several errors in the documentation and content of the above Hadith, it conflicts with many other general and specific Hadiths allowing religious service in tombs. Moreover, Sunni scholars have antipathy toward the act in their most radical ideas and do not consider it taboo. Another important conclusion made is that the Wahhabis and Ibn Taymiyyah ideas are in great contradiction with Sunni and other Muslims' ideas.

Keywords: Ibn Taymiyyah; Service; Tomb; Sunni; Prayers; Do not say prayers; Aba-Morsad Al-Ghanavi; Do not say prayers for them