Where is al-Husayn buried, and how important is it to know where the graves of the Sahaabah are?

 

A questioner says that people talk a great deal and have different opinions about where the grave of al-Husayn is located. Can the Muslims benefit from knowing exactly where it is?.

Praise be to Allaah.
 

 

In fact people differed concerning that. It
was said that he is buried in Syria, or in Iraq, and Allaah knows best what is true. With regard to his head, they also differed concerning that;
it was said that it is buried in Syria, or in Iraq, or in Egypt. The correct view is that the site in Egypt is not his grave, rather that is a
mistake and the head of al-Husayn is not there. A number of scholars have written essays on that and explained that there is no evidence for the
head of al-Husayn being in Egypt. The most likely to be correct is the view that it is in Syria, because it was taken to Yazeed ibn Mu’aawiyah who
was in Syria. There is no basis for the view that it was taken to Egypt. Either it was kept in Syria or it was returned to his body in Iraq. 

Whatever the case, the people do not need to
know where it is buried or where it is. Rather what is prescribed is to pray for forgiveness and mercy for him, may Allaah forgive him and be
pleased with him, for he was killed unlawfully. So we should pray for forgiveness and mercy for him, and hope for much good for him. He and his
brother al-Hasan will be the leaders of the youth of Paradise, as the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said. May Allaah be
pleased with them. 

If a person’s grave is known, there is
nothing wrong with saying salaams to him and making du’aa’ for him, as other graves may be visited, without going to extremes in that or
worshipping them. It is not permissible to ask the dead to intercede, because nothing can be asked of the dead; rather we should make du’aa’ for
them and pray for mercy for them if they were Muslims, because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Visit the
graves, for they will remind you of the Hereafter.” 

If a person visits the graves of al-Husayn or
al-Hasan or any other Muslim to make du’aa’ for them and pray for mercy and forgiveness for them, as he would do at the grave of any other Muslim,
this is Sunnah. But visiting graves to pray to their occupants or seek their help or ask them to intercede – this is a reprehensible action, and
indeed it is major shirk. It is not permissible to build mosques or domes etc over graves, because the Messenger (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) said: “May Allaah curse the Jews and Christians, for they took the graves of their Prophets as places of worship.” (Saheeh –
agreed upon). And because it was narrated from Jaabir (may Allaah be pleased with him) in al-Saheeh that the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade plastering over graves, sitting on them and erecting structures over them.” So t is not permissible to
plaster over graves, perfume them, place screens around them or erect structures over them; all of that is forbidden and these are means that lead
to shirk. And we should not pray at graves because the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Those who came before you
used to take the graves of their Prophets and righteous people as places of worship; do not take graves as places of worship, for I forbid you to
do that.” (Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh from Jundub ibn ‘Abd-Allaah al-Bajali (may Allaah be pleased with him). 

This hadeeth indicates that it is not
permissible to pray at graves or to take them as mosques; and because that is a means that leads to shirk and worshipping someone other than
Allaah by calling upon them (the occupants of the graves), seeking their help, making vows to them, and touching the graves to seek their
blessings. Hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) warned against that. Rather graves should be visited in the manner
prescribed in sharee’ah only, to give salaams to them and make du’aa’ for them and pray for mercy for them, but without travelling specifically
for that purpose. 

And Allaah is the Source of strength and the
Guide to the straight path. 

The people of the Cave are the people of the Inscription

 

Were the people of the Cave the people of the Inscription, or were these two different groups of people?

Praise
be to Allaah.  

Shaykh
al-Shanqeeti said, commenting on the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):

 

“Do
you think that the people of the Cave and the Inscription (the news
or the names of the people of the Cave) were a wonder among Our Signs?”
[al-Kahf 18:9] 

The apparent meaning is that the People of the Cave and
of the Inscription were all one group, mentioned in conjunction with
two things. This is in contrast to those who say that the people of
the Cave were one group and the people of the Inscription were another
group. Allaah told this story to His Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon them) in this soorah, and He
did not mention anything about the people of the Inscription. This is
unlike those who claim that the people of the Cave were three persons
behind whom the rock fell and blocked the entrance of the cave in which
they were, so they prayed to Allaah by virtue of their righteous deeds;
they were one who honoured his parents, one who was chaste, and one
who was a hired labourer. Their story is well known and is proven in
al-Saheeh, but interpreting this aayah as meaning that these
were the people referred to therein is far-fetched as you can see. It
should be noted there is nothing about the story of the people of the
cave, their names and which part of the earth they were in that has
been narrated in any sound report from the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), in addition to what is
mentioned in the Qur’aan. The Mufassireen quoted many of those details
from the Israa’eeliyyaat (reports from Jewish sources) which we will
not quote here because they cannot be relied upon. 

Our attitude towards Yazeed ibn Mu’aawiyah

 

I heard of this person Yazeed Ibn Muawiyah. I heard that he once a calipha of the muslims and he was a drunken sadistic person, who was not really a muslim. Is this true? Please tell me his story. Thank you and may allah bless you.

Praise
be to Allaah.

His name was Yazeed ibn Mu’aawiyah ibn Abi Sufyaan ibn
Harb ibn Umayaah al-Umawi al-Dimashqi.

Al-Dhahabi said: he was the commander of that army during
the campaign against Constantinople, among which were people such as
Abu Ayyoob al-Ansaari. Yazeed was appointed by his father as his heir,
so he took power after his father died in Rajab 60 AH at the age of
thirty-three, but his reign lasted for less than four years.

Yazeed is one of those whom we neither curse nor love.
There are others like him among the khaleefahs of the two states (Umawi/Umayyad
and ‘Abbaasi/Abbasid) and the governors of various regions, indeed there
were some among them who were worse than him. But the issue in the case
of Yazeed is that he was came to power forty-nine years after the death
of the Prophet SAWS (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him); it
was still close to the time of the Prophet and some of the Sahaabah
were still alive such as Ibn ‘Umar who was more entitled to the position
than him or his father or his grandfather.

His reign began with the killing of the martyr al-Husayn
and it ended with the battle of al-Harrah, so the people hated him and
he was not blessed with a long life. There were many revolts against
him after al-Husayn, such as the people of Madeenah who revolted for
the sake of Allaah, and Ibn al-Zubayr.

(Siyar A’laam al-Nubalaa’, part 4, p. 38)

Shaykh al-Islam described
people’s attitudes towards Yazeed ibn Mu’aawiyah, and said:

The people differed concerning Yazeed ibn Mu’aawiyah
ibn Abi Sufyaan, splitting into three groups, two extreme and one moderate.

One of the two extremes said that he was a kaafir and
a munaafiq, that he strove to kill the grandson of the Prophet SAWS
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to spite the Messenger of
Allaah and to take revenge on him, and to avenge his grandfather ‘Utbah,
his grandfather’s brother Shaybah and his maternal uncle al-Waleed ibn
‘Utbah and others who were killed by the companions of the Prophet SAWS
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), by ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib
and others on the day of Badr and in other battles – and things of that
nature. To have such a view is easy for the Raafidis who regard Abu
Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthmaan as kaafirs, so it is much easier for them to
regard Yazeed as a kaafir.

The second extreme group think that he was a righteous
man and a just leader, that he was one of the Sahaabah who were born
during the time of the Prophet and were carried and blessed by him.
Some of them give him a higher status than Abu Bakr and ‘Umar, and some
of them regard him as a prophet. Both views are obviously false to one
who has the least common sense and who has any knowledge of the lives
and times of the earliest Muslims. This view is not attributable to
any of the scholars who are known for following the Sunnah or to any
intelligent person who has reason and experience.

The third view is that he was one of the kings of the
Muslims, who did good deeds and bad deeds. He was not born until the
caliphate of ‘Uthmaan. He was not a kaafir but it was because of him
that the killing of al-Husayn happened, and he did what he did to the
people of al-Harrah. He was not a Sahaabi, nor was he one of the righteous
friends of Allaah. This is the view of most of the people of reason
and knowledge and of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamaa’ah.

Then they divided into three groups, one which cursed
him, one which loved him and one which neither cursed him nor loved
him. This is what was reported from Imaam Ahmad, and this is the view
of the fair-minded among his companions and others among the Muslims.
Saalih ibn Ahmad said: I said to my father, some people say that they
love Yazeed. He said, O my son, does anyone love Yazeed who believes
in Allaah and the Last Day? I said, O my father, why do you not curse
him? He said, O my son, when did you ever see your father curse anybody?

Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi
said, when he was asked about Yazeed: according to what I have heard
he is neither to be cursed nor to be loved. He said, I also heard that
our grandfather Abu ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Taymiyah was asked about Yazeed
and he said: we do not deny his good qualities or exaggerate about them.
This is the fairest opinion. 

Majmoo’ Fataawa Shaykh al-Islam,
part 4, p. 481-484

The name of the wife of Ayyoob (peace be upon him)

 

What is the name of the wife of Ayyoob (peace be upon him)?

Praise be to
Allaah.

The historians and some of the mufassireen
have stated that her name was Rahmah bint Meesha ibn Yoosuf ibn Ya’qoob. 

But this is something which is not proven
in any clear sound text, rather it was transmitted from the books of
the People of the Book, or by some Muslims from them. We shall list
those who were of this view and transmitted it: 

1 – Al-Suyooti said: Ibn ‘Asaakir narrated that Wahb
ibn Munabbih (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: “The wife of Ayyoob
(peace be upon him) was Rahmah (may Allaah be pleased with her) bint
Meeshaa ibn Yoosuf ibn Ya’qoob ibn Ishaaq ibn Ibraaheem (peace be upon
them).

(al-Durr al-Manthoor, 7/197. Also
in Tafseer al-Baydaawi, 3/310; Tafseer al-Qurtubi,
9/265; Tafseer al-Baghawi, 2/451) 

2 – Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may
Allaah have mercy on him) said:

But these Israa’eeli (i.e., Jewish) reports
to be mentioned for the purpose of proving a point, they are not to
be believed. They are of three types:

(i)               
Those which we know are
sound because of evidence which we have which proves them to be true.
These are saheeh.

(ii)             
Those which we know are
false because of evidence which we have which contradicts them.

(iii)           
Those which we do not know
whether they are true or false. So we do not believe in them and we
do not disbelieve in them, but it is permissible to narrate them for
the reasons given above. 

Most of them are things which serve no
religious purpose, hence the scholars of the People of the Book differ
greatly concerning such things. The mufassireen also differed concerning
them as a result of that, as they mentioned, for example, the names
of the People of the Cave, the colour of their dog and their number,
or what kind of tree the staff of Moosa came from, and other matters
which Allaah did not mention in detail in the Qur’aan because knowing
the specific details does not serve any worldly or religious purpose. 

(Majmoo’ al-Fataawa, 13/366-367). 

Al-Shanqeeti (may Allaah have mercy on
him) said:

 What the mufassireen have said
concerning the name of their dog – some said that its name was Qitmeer,
and some said that its name was Hamdaan, etc. – we need not dwell on
at length, because it serves no purpose. There are many things in the
Qur’aan which neither Allaah nor His Messenger has explained to us in
detail, and there are no proven reports concerning them; there is no
benefit to be gained by researching such matters. 

(Adwaa’ al-Bayaan, 4/48) 

And Allaah knows best.

No-one who was alive in 10 AH lived for more than one hundred years

 

Could you please explain this hadith: Narrated by Abdullah ibn Umar (RA): Once the Prophet led us in the 'Isha' prayer during the last days of his life and after finishing it (the prayer) (with Taslim) he said: "Do you realize (the importance of) this night?" Nobody present on the surface of the earth tonight will be living after the completion of one hundred years from this night." -- Sahih Bukhari (1.116)

Praise be to Allaah.

The meaning of the hadeeth is clear and apparent,
and was borne out by  real events. The Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was stating that none of
the people who were alive at that time would live for more than a hundred
years, and this is what in fact happened. The last of the Sahaabah to
die passed away in 110 AH, i.e., he died one hundred years after the
Messenger (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) died. His name was Abu’l-Tufayl ibn Waathilah. 

Shaykh Sa’d al-Humayd 

This hadeeth was narrated
by Imaam al-Bukhaari (may Allaah have mercy on him) in his Saheeh,
from ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar, who said: “The Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) led us in praying ‘Ishaa
towards the end of his life. When he had said the salaam, he
stood up and said: ‘Do you see this night of yours? One hundred years
from now, there will not be anyone left of those who are on the face
of the earth.’” 

There follow some comments
made by Ibn Hajar (may Allaah have mercy on him) on this hadeeth: 

“Led us in prayer” means as
an imaam.

“Towards the end of his life”. A corroborating
report narrated by Jaabir states that this was one month before he
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) died.

“Do you see” means, “Think about (this
night).”

“One hundred years from now” means, when
one hundred years have passed.

“There will not be anyone left of those
who are on the face of the earth” means, anyone who was alive at that
time. 

Ibn Battaal said: What the
Messenger (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) meant was that during this time-span their generation
would pass away. He was pointing out to them how short their lives were
and that their lives were not like those of the nations who came before
them, so that they would strive hard in worship. 

Al-Nawawi said: What is meant
is that everyone who was on the face of the earth on that night would
not live for more than one hundred years after that night, whether he
was young on that occasion or not. It does not mean that anyone who
was born after that night would not live for a hundred years. And Allaah
knows best. 

This hadeeth is one of the
signs of the Prophethood of the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). He was speaking of future
events which came to pass as he described them. The trustworthy scholars
use this as evidence in refuting some of the Sufis who say that al-Khidr
is still alive until now.

Did the Arabs know about Allaah before the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was sent?

 

We know that Holy Prophet's()father name was Abdullah & he had passed away before Prophet's birth.With this background please tell that what was the concept in arabs about "ALLAH"before prophet.Were they familiar to this word before prophet's birth?How did they differentiate Allah from idols,if at all they did?

You should note that Arabian societies before Islam were
not atheistic societies that denied the existence of Allaah, or societies
that were unaware that there is a Lord, Creator and Provider. They knew
that, and they still retained some traces of the religion of Ibraaheem,
and they had contact with Jews and Christians. But their problem was
that they did not worship Allaah Alone in exclusion to others; they
had other gods whom they associated in worship with Him, and which they
worshipped not on the basis that they were the Lord, the Creator the
Provider, but because they claimed that these were intermediaries who
would intercede between them and Allaah and bring them closer to Allaah.
Hence Allaah said concerning them (interpretation of the meaning):

“And
if you (O Muhammad) ask them: ‘Who has created the heavens and the earth,’
they will certainly say: ‘Allaah’” [Luqmaan
31:25]

 This indicates that they acknowledged that Allaah
is the Creator. Another aayah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And verily, if you ask them:
‘Who created the heavens and the earth?’ Surely, they will say: ‘Allaah
(has created them)’”

[al-Zumar 39:38]  

Many aayaat indicated that they believed in the Unity of
Lordship (Tawheed al-Ruboobiyyah);
their shirk was with regard
to divinity (uloohiyyah),
as Allaah says concerning them (interpretation of the meaning):

“And
those who take Awliyaa’ (protectors, helpers, lords, gods) besides Him
(say): ‘We worship them only that they may bring us near to Allaah’”
[al-Zumar 39:3] 

i.e., they said, we only worship them so that they may
bring us closer to Allaah. 

Does the dove hold any significance in Islam?

 

In the Christian religion, a dove is a symbol not only for peace but also for
the Holy Spirit.In the Islamic religion, does the dove hold any significance ?

Praise be to Allaah. 

We put this
question to Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Jibreen, may Allaah preserve him, who
answered as follows.

 The dove
does not have any particular meaning in Islam. It is simply one of the
birds that Allaah has permitted us to eat, just like any other permissible
bird.

 In
Islam, the dove does not stand for peace or for anything else. It is
sufficient for us Muslims for us to follow the commands of Allaah to
establish justice on earth.