Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Number 1082:
'A'isha and Abdullah reported: As the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) was about to breathe his last, he drew his sheet upon his face and when he felt uneasy, he uncovered his face and said in that very state: Let there be curse upon the Jews and the Christians that they have taken the graves of their apostles as places of worship. He in fact warned (his men) against what they (the Jews and the Christians) did.
3 comments:
While I am not ready to curse anyone over it, I would have to agree with the dangers of what Muhammad condemned here.... both for Christians and Muslims.
Peace to you brother,
From the Middle East
FTME: I disagree, it is a perfectly human and healthy thing to do to honor people by building memorials for them. That is exactly what is going on here. I think Muhammad was talking about something he had knew nothing about, to be honest.
Brother Abu Daoud,
No issue with building a memorial. The danger that Muhammad, I think, was warning against here is exactly what has happened in many cases. Someone dies and something is built to honor him/her. Worshippers then attribute some kind of supernatural power to the place of the grave. This is how I take this hadith. I could be completely wrong, but this practice definitely occurs in Islam.
Again, I have no problem with honoring people, we should do so. And I could be wrong about Muhammad's intent here, but throughout his teachings he is quite concerned with keeping liturgical and practical worship of anyone/anything other than God out of the Ummah.
Peace to you brother,
From the Middle East
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