Part 7 The Condemnation of the People of Knowledge for this Dome

                               The Ruling of the Dome Built upon the Grave

of the

Messenger of Allaah - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam

By the

Shaykh, Muhadith of the land of Yemen

Muqbil bin Hadi al-Waadi'ee

Translated by

Abbas Abu Yahya

Part 7      

The Condemnation of the People of Knowledge for this Dome

There is no doubt that the people of knowledge - may Allaah have mercy on them - condemn what has been prohibited by the Sharia'. Some of them have clearly mentioned their condemnation and some of them -perhaps- have remained silent, since what is known is that there is no advantage to this speech.

Perhaps they took into account the permissibility of remaining silent because of the saying of the Messenger of Allaah - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam - to 'Aeysha -radiAllaah anhu:

'If it were not that your people had recently left kufr (disbelief) I would have rebuilt the house (Ka'ba) on the foundations upon which Ibraheem built it.'

Agreed upon by Bukharee and Muslim

What is understood is that those who openly mentioned their condemnation fulfilled what Allaah had made obligatory upon them, which is advising for the sake of Islaam and the Muslims.

The following are some of those who condemned the building of this dome.

Shaykh ul-Islaam Ibn Taymeeyah - may Allaah have mercy on him - said in his book 'Iqtidaa Siraat ul-Mustaqeem' :

'…….And this is why, when his apartment was built in the time of the Tabieen (the followers of the Companions) - I would sacrifice my mother and father for him - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam- that they left the top of it ­­­­­­­­­­­as a skylight towards the sky.  And it was like that until recent times, with wax placed upon it and rocks on its edges which held it together.

The roof was projecting upwards towards the sky and it was like that at the time the masjid and the mimbar (pulpit) were burnt down in the year six hundred and fifty odd.  The fire was so severe in the land of the Hijjaz that it lit up the necks of the camels in Basra.  After that came the fitnah (trial) of the Tartars in Baghdad and other Fitn (trials) also came.

Then the Masjid was re-built as it had originally been, as was the roof, and a wooden wall was introduced around the apartment.  Then, after a number of years, the dome was erected on the roof whilst there were those who condemned it.'

As-Sanaani - may Allaah have mercy on him - said in 'Tatheer al-I'tiqaad' :

'If you say: This is the grave of the Messenger - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam, a great dome has been built upon it and a lot of money has been spent on it.  Then, I say that this is major ignorance of the reality of the situation.

Without doubt this dome was not built by the Messenger - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam, nor by his Companions, nor by their successors (Tabieen), nor the followers of the successors, nor the scholars of the Ummah - the Imaams of his people.

Rather, this dome was imposed on his grave - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam - and was built by one of the latter kings of Misr (Eygpt), Qaloon as-Salihee, more well known as king al-Mansoor in the year 678.'

He mentioned it in: 'Tahqeeq an-Nasraah bi Talkheehs mu'aalim Dar al-Hijrah' and these matters are issued by the governments and not based upon evidences from the text.

Shaykh Hussain bin Mahdi an-Nuaymi mentions, in his book 'Ma'arij al-Albaab', the statements of some of those who were tried as a result of taking the dome of the Messenger - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam - as sanction for the permissibility of building all domes.  A Mufti states, 'From what is well known is that the Messenger - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam - had a dome, just like the 'Aawliya of Madeenah and the 'Aawliya of the rest of the different cities.  Building domes is the fashion in every era; it is believed that having a dome is the cause of receiving blessings.

An-Nuaymi - may Allaah have mercy on him - commented by saying: 'I say: if this is the case, then what about the fact that the Messenger - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam, warned against this, he cautioned and cleared his blessed and pure self - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam from what you did. You did exactly what he specifically prohibited.  Was it not sufficient for you that you opposed his command?  This (alone) is evidence against yourselves.  You were forward in the presence of the Messenger (ie his statement).  Did he - sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam – allude to any of what you hold permissible? Was he pleased with that or did he not prohibit this?  As for your belief of blessings descending, then this is from yourselves and not from Allaah, and Allaah has refuted you.

When the Ikhwaan - may Allaah have mercy on them - entered Madeenah at the time of AbdulAzeez - may Allaah have mercy on him -, it was of great importance to them to remove the dome.  If only they had done so, but they - may Allaah have mercy on them - feared that the fitnah from the Qubooreeyeen (the sect of grave-worshippers) would be greater than removing the dome i.e. that removing an evil might lead to something more evil.

Look how many false arguments the Qubooreeyeen have when they are called to remove these domes, some of which are similar to al-Laat, Uzza and Habil.

All Praise belongs to Allaah, may His peace and blessings be upon our final Prophet Muhammad, his family, his companions and all those who follow his guidance.