doing Sal?t even towards one grave is forbidden - which is the soundest of all opinions - for a cemetery is the place in which the dead are buried even if it consists of only one grave. Our Hanbal? Shaikhs stated that the area round the cemetery is part of it; consequently, Sal?t must not be done there, so is the case with the area surrounding a single grave’. (1)

[3/ 13] There should be a barrier between the cemetery and the neighboring mosque in order that the Sal?t in the later be valid. The wall of the mosque is not enough to be considered as a barrier between it and the cemetery. (2)

[4/ 13] the prohibition of doing Sal?t in a mosque that is established over a grave is a general rule - whether the grave(s) is on its right, left, behind or front. The last one is, however, the worst of all cases for two reasons: the mosque is built on a grave and the grave is located to the front of praying muslims which is totally prohibited. (3)

[5/ 13] The aforementioned prohibition covers those graves which are above the ground level, unlike those which are at the bottom of the ground for the whole earth is a cemetery for the dead; All?h ( - عز وجل -) said:

[ ألم نجعل الأرض كفاتاً * أحياءً وأمواتاً]

‘ Have we not made the earth a receptable? For the living and the dead’. (4)

Ash-Sha‘b? said: ‘Its [the earth’s] bottom is [a container] for your dead and its surface is for your living’. (5)

[6/ 13] Doing Sal?t towards the dead placed in the direction of the Qiblah:

Shaikh Al-Q?r? said: ‘This [doing Sal?t towards the corp] is one of the bad deeds people of Makkah practice; they place the dead body near the Ka‘bah then perform their [obligatory] Sal?t towards it’. (6)

The eminent Shaikh Al-Alb?n? said: ‘This is indeed a hideous practice which has spread all through Ash-Sh?m [Syria], Turkey and other countries. I have recently seen a terrible photograph which shows a row of muslims doing Sal?t and prostrating themselves towards a row of shrouded dead bodies of people who drowned in the sea’. (7)

It is worth mentioning here that the general practice of the prophet ( - صلى الله عليه وسلم -) was to do the Jan?zah Sal?t in the Musall?, not in mosques, so that muslims may not fall in such a hideous act against which the eminent Shaikh Al-Q?r? warned’. (8)

Dear muslim brother, follow the footsteps of your Sal?f in applying Tawh?d in all your acts and never join in your worship others with All?h ( - عز وجل -). All?h ( - عز وجل -) said:

[ فمن كان يرجو لقاء الله فليعمل عملاً صالحاً ولا يشرك بعبادة ربه أحداً]

‘ Whoever hopes for the meeting with All?h ( - عز وجل -) , let him work righteousness and associate no partner in worship of his Rabb’. (9)

[14] Assigning one place in the mosque for doing Sal?t:

It is detested for any muslim - to the exclusion of the Im?m - to stick to one place in the mosque to do the obligatory Sal?t in. Abdur Rahm?n Ibn shibl said: ‘All?h’s ( - عز وجل -) Ras?l ( - صلى الله عليه وسلم -) forbade that a muslim does his Sal?t so fast like a crow when it eats,