Absurd Practices at Shrines

Question

Building domes over graves, laying sheets [on them], making offerings, planting flags, slaughtering goats at shrines by way of nadhr and niyaz (votive offerings), distributing sweets — is this established by the Qur’an, the Hadith and fiqh, or not? And is it the way of the sunna, or is it bid‘a (innovation in religion)?

Answer

All these practices are, according to the Sacred Law, impermissible, makruh and sinful, and some of them reach the limit of shirk. See the Tasawwuf issue of [the monthly] “Nizam”, August 1963.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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