Traveling to visit the grave of the pious, friends of Allah, dedicating the reward of vows to them and commemorating them |
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We reviewed request no. 2446 for the year 2005 and which includes the following: 1- What is the extent of the permissibility of traveling for long distances to visit the shrine of pious person or a sheikh? 2- Many people take sacrifices with them as offerings of thanks and appreciation to these people. Is this permissible? 3- What is the ruling for commemorating the righteous by celebrating, hanging lights and decorations? 4- I fear for my father from the lesser shirk. Am I entitled to prevent him from going to these commemorations and from visiting shrines? |
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1- Traveling to visit the grave of a pious person or sheikh
Visiting graves Visiting the grave of the Prophet Though the majority of scholars maintained that it is disliked for women to visit graves, they excluded the grave of the Prophet [pbuh] and those of other prophets from this ruling due to the generality of evidences on this matter. Traveling to visit graves Discussion of Evidence • Al-Nawawi. In his interpretation of the hadith, he says: “There is no virtue in traveling to any mosque apart from these three.” Based on the above, traveling to visit the grave of a prophet, the righteous or relatives is a recommended matter since this is the only means of achieving this aim and any claim to the opposite is invalid. 2- Making sacrifices and vows to the pious and the righteous Based on this, a vow or a sacrifice made to a pious or a righteous person in this sense is valid and does not constitute shirk [associating partners to Allah] as some allege. Nor is it inconsistent with Tawheed [Oneness of Allah] and sincerity in worshipping Allah Almighty, since the person making the sacrifice or vow only intends to dedicate their reward to the deceased. It is an act of worship dedicated to Allah and its reward donated to the deceased. Kinds of Vows The conditional vow: Scholars maintain that this kind of vow is disliked due to the words of ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: “The Prophet [pbuh] forbade making vows and said, ‘It [the vow] will not avert anything but will only force the miser to give up something” [Muslim and Bukhari]. It is better for a Muslim to draw close to Allah through his pious deeds and obedience without attaching a condition to his vow. Unconditional Vows: Vows to do an act of worship are of two kinds. They include acts which are similar in kind to an obligatory act of worship such as prayers, fasts, Hajj and so forth and they must be fulfilled according to the opinion of the majority of scholars. The other type includes acts which are not similar in kind to obligatory acts of worship, yet are meritorious. These include building mosques, joining a funeral procession, Tashmeet [asking Allah to have mercy on the person who sneezes] and so forth. These are necessary to fulfill according to the majority of scholars except for the Hanafis. It is claimed that a vow made to a deceased is invalid due to the impossibility of him receiving the object of the vow. This is false since the intention of the person making the vow is to direct it to Allah and dedicate its reward to the deceased. 3- Commemorating the righteous and hanging lights and decorations on these events As for the prohibited acts which occur during these events such as the mixing of the sexes, these are to be repudiated and their perpetrators must be warned against contravening the basic objective for which these events are held. 4- Preventing a parent from attending commemorations of the pious and the righteous or visiting their shrines Allah Almighty knows best. |