Building a Mosque in an Old Graveyard

Question

(1) Is it permissible or not to build a mosque in graveyards where no traces of graves are visible? Kindly write with evidence and references to books. (2) There is a piece of land on which there are no traces of graves, nor does anyone among the people now living know that it was a graveyard at any time; but there is certainly a doubt that it may have been a graveyard, because at some distance from it there definitely was a graveyard, though there too traces of graves are no longer visible.

Answer

If the deceased no longer remains in the graves but has already turned to earth, then the rulings have now changed: cultivating there, building — all of it is permissible: [ar]جاز زرعه (أي القبر) والبناء عليه إذا بلي وصار الميت ترابًا[/ar] “It is permissible to cultivate it (that is, the grave) and to build on it once the deceased has decayed and become dust” (al-Zayla‘i).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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