Uyub Tashyid al-Bina fi Dar al-Fana
- Author died
- 1445 AH
- Editions
- Without publisher (Cataloging of King Fahd National Library - Riyadh)
Uyub Tashyid al-Bina fi Dar al-Fana (The Flaws of Erecting Buildings in the Abode of Transience) is a treatise on Islamic asceticism (zuhd) by the contemporary Saudi scholar Abd al-Karim bin Salih al-Humayd (d. 1445 AH / 2023 CE), focusing on the religious censure of excessive worldly construction, architectural extravagance, and ornamentation.
Purpose and Scope
The author composed the work to admonish Muslims against being absorbed in the construction and beautification of dwellings in the fleeting worldly life (dar al-fana). Al-Humayd argues that architecture and decorative adornment have reached unprecedented levels in modern times, distracting people from the fundamental purpose of human creation—namely, the exclusive worship of God as stated in the Quran: وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ ("And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me" [al-Dhariyat: 56]). He critiques later writers who interpret man's role on earth as an injunction to develop and build up the physical world, contending that such an interpretation is a corrupt understanding that contradicts the divine wisdom behind creation.
Content and Method
The treatise draws upon Quranic verses, prophetic traditions, historical narrations (athar), and classical ascetic poetry to establish that dwellings should be restricted to what is strictly necessary to provide shelter and protection from heat, cold, and rain.
Among the primary textual proofs and historical anecdotes cited in the book are:
- Prophetic hadiths censuring excessive construction and decorated houses, including the report that every building is a burden upon its owner except what is unavoidable, and the prophetic tradition in al-Adab al-Mufrad identifying the construction of homes adorned like striped garments as a sign of the Hour.
- The account of an Ansari companion who erected an elevated clay dome in Medina; when the Prophet ﷺ expressed displeasure, the companion dismantled it to the ground.
- Reports regarding the simple lifestyle of the Companions and early generations, including Khabbab ibn al-Aratt's statement that a Muslim is rewarded for all expenditures except what is put into the soil, and al-Hasan al-Basri's recollection that he could touch the ceilings of the Prophet's wives' rooms with his hand during the caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan.
- Directives from Umar ibn al-Khattab to his governors advising against elevating buildings, as well as his reprimand of Abu al-Darda for building an enclosure in Homs.
- An account cited from Ibn Kathir's al-Bidayah wa-l-Nihayah regarding the order of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz in 88 AH to demolish the modest palm-leaf and mudbrick rooms of the Prophet's wives to expand the Prophet's Mosque, an action over which the scholars and notables of Medina expressed profound grief, as they preferred preserving them so that pilgrims might learn humility and renunciation of worldly excess.
- Stories and sayings of early ascetics such as Dawud al-Ta'i, Sufyan al-Thawri, Tawus ibn Kaysan, and Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi, interwoven with poetic verses reminding the reader of death and the grave.
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