Bismillah hir Rahman nir Rahim
Please recite surah al fatiha for all the marhumeen around the world granting them the reward.
I want to discuss what happened to jannat al baqqee and why is it a sacred place, also touching upon tawassul?
So the literal meaning of “Al-Baqee” means a tree garden. It is also known as “Jannat Al-Baqee” due to its sanctity, since buried in this cemetery are many of our Prophet’s SAWA relatives and his companions.
Al baqqee was an area in what today's day we call Saudi Arabia. Prophet Muhammad SAWA arrived in Medina from Mecca, during the construction of the Prophet's Mosque, on the site he purchased from two orphan children, jannat al baqee was also designated in that area.
Within this cemetery there are many pious religious people, such as the Hamza the uncle of the Holy Prophet Muhammads SAWA, the son of the Holy Prophet SAWA his name was Ibrahim, the second Imam (Imam Hasan), the fourth Imam (Imam Zain al Abedin), the fifty Imam (Imam Al Baqir), the sixth imam (Imam Jafar al Sadiq), Fatima bint Asad, Um al Baneen, Haleema the wetnurse of the Holy Prophet SAWA, Umm Salama, Umm Habeeba and others whose lives were lost as a martyr in the battle of Uhud, these are just to name a few but there are many other pious individuals also buried there.
Just the fact that so many pious people were buried there, out of respect people would usually honour this type of cemetery but here at al Baqee you see it was not done, in fact it was far from being treated with respect. The wahhabis have misunderstood tawassul and called it shirk and at the end I hope to touch upon if this is shirk. In the 18th century al Saud took over and gained power in the area. The family of Saud was backed by wahhabis. This ideology was and still is very intolerant to anyone that is not them, calling anyone who does not submit to their ways is a kafir, a disbeliever. They say that the graves and shrines of the Imams and visitors to the mosque of the Prophet were committing idolatry and therefore anyone who opposed this ideology was persecuted, massacred and their property was confiscated. In 1805 was the first attack on al Baqee cemetery and then the second order to demolish al Baqee took place in 1925 they desecrated, and ruined the Islamic sites and the cemetery of Jannat al Baqee was raised to the ground. The only Shrine that remained intact was that of the Holy Prophet SAWA. Anyone who opposed this was brutally massacred and on the streets women and children also had fallen victim to this brutality.
But didn't they see in their very own books in Sahih, Muslim through the transmission chain narration from Aisha as saying the nights that the messenger of God spent with her would go to the Baqee cemetery late in the evening and said, greetings to you all inhabitants of the abode of the Believers! You are forerunners and we will join you. Oh God! Forgive the sins of the inhabitants of the Baqee cemetery.
Here I want to discuss tawasuul as they have claimed these things to be shirk.
They will say that we humbly go towards the shrines just like we humbly go towards God and this is polytheism.
Our response to such claims is if you are humble to anyone is this worship?
The Quran says to be humble in front of your parents.
Lower to your parents the wing of humility out of mercy and say: My Lord, have mercy upon them as they brought me up when I was small.
Surah Al-Isra 17:24
In there own book:
Verily, Allah has revealed to me that you must be humble towards one another, so that no one wrongs another or boasts to another.
Source: Sahih Muslim 2865,
Humble and worshipping are different:
When you worship something you believe that, that thing is the source of all the power in the universe and is the source of all that you need. Humbling yourself towards someone is to respect them, even this is worshipping Allah.
Bukhari in number of hadiths. Narrated from Khatada and Anas ibn Malik, they say I heard this Hadith from the Prophet, when a person is put in his grave and the family who were there leave he hears them walking away and he can even hear the flapping of their sandals.
This Hadith proves that they are hearing when they are dead.
Bukhari in another narration, when the battle of Badr was over, the Prophet SAWA came and he stood by the edge of a well the Prophet SAWA started to call on those dead pagans by their names and the names of their fathers he tells them wasn't it better for you to follow Allah and his Prophet and obey me now you have seen the truth, have you seen what Allah has promised you?
Omar objects, oh Rasulullah why are you taking to bodies with no soul?
The Holy Prophet SAWA response I swear by the one whose hand is my soul you cannot hear me any better than they can.
In Sahih Muslim it states from Ayesha that: The Holy Prophet SAWA taught me the manner of visiting the graves. Here is the text of the tradition:
“My Lord commanded me to come to Baqi’ and seek forgiveness for them. (Ayesha) says: I asked him how one should seek forgiveness to which the Holy Prophet SAWA replied: Say Peace (Salaam) be upon the people of this place from the believers and Muslims, may God have mercy on those who have left and those who are to follow. We shall join you all very soon.”
So I think I have presented enough here to show that even in their own books visiting the graves and praying to the dead is not shirk!
So if in their books it was clear where did this ideology come from? It came with the influence of ibn Tamiyya.
Ibn Taymiyya was among the first people who issued the prohibition of traveling for visiting the grave of the Prophet (s), supplication and asking requests near the grave of the Prophet (s). He claimed that anyone who travels to visit the grave of the Prophet (s) opposes the consensus of Muslims and leaves the religion of the Prophet (s). He also claimed that all Muslims prohibit touching, kissing and putting the face on the grave and none of great people in early Islam did such actions. He considered it an act of polytheism.
In the view of Ibn Taymiyya, travelling to visit the grave of the Prophet (s) is a sinful journey.
Ibn Taymiyyah writes:
This is what was said by Abu Hanifa and his companions. It is not permissible and they prohibited it, such that they said Allah is not asked by created beings, nor does one say: I ask You by the right of Your prophets.
Source: Majmū’ al-Fatāwá 1/202
Ibn Taymiyya claims this is what abu Hanifa said, so what did abu Hanifa say?
"No one should call upon Allah except by Him."
But what does the Quran say about calling upon others?
They will recite verses to prove their claim we had touched upon earlier how we respond but I will add a few extra points to confirm our beliefs and disprove their claims.
Surah 2 ayah 48 "And fear a day when no soul will suffice for another soul at all, nor will intercession be accepted from it, nor will compensation be taken from it, nor will they be aided"
Clear verse that Allah will not accept any Shafā. Here we respond, the exegesis of the Quran states that this ayah was revealed to the Jewish people, they believed that if you came from Jewish ancestors you had a ticket to heaven. Quran says no, it doesn't matter who you come from, those ancestors will not save you. So this verse is not completely negating shafā, but it is negating this type of thought of shafā.
When you examine the other ayats that state no shafā you see it is towards the pagans. Pagans believed that their idols had the power of shafā. Allah responds to them in the Quran, he states these idols will not be able to ever give you shafā.
Some verses give conditional shafā. Surah 2 ayah 255 "Allah - there is no deity except Him, the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of [all] existence. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is [presently] before them and what will be after them, and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge except for what He wills. His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, and their preservation tires Him not. And He is the Most High, the Most Great."
Surah ta ha ayah 109 "That Day, no intercession will benefit except [that of] one to whom the Most Merciful has given permission and has accepted his word."
It clearly states in the Quran that intercession is only with Allah's permission, everything is only with Allah's permission.
This is what they destroyed al Baqee for, for misunderstanding and mistaking their own books and interpreting Quran not correctly either knowingly or intentionally...
After seeing all these different aspects of wasabis we can see that the ideology and rejection and opposing the prophet happened way back from the beginning. However ibn Taymiyya did what no other scholar did and that was pushing the movement out that anyone that did this was a kafir, this rule and ideology had horrible consequences on many Muslims, like the shia particularly.
It is important to draw a line of differences between wahhabis and other sunni sects. Wahhabi are different then majority Sunni and have different ideology when it comes to visiting graves both Shia and Sunni stood together against the destruction of al Baqee.
According to Shia and Sunni and contrary to Wahhabi beliefs, building shrines upon graves is not against Islamic beliefs, visiting the graves of religious figures is allowed and praying for them and to them is fine.
So I pray that I was able to sum up what is al Baqee and why it's a very important holy place. And I pray one day soon we see al Baqee redone and fixed up.
