Ziyarat al-Qubur wa al-Istinjad bi al-Maqbur
- Author died
- 728 AH
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Ziyarat al-Qubur wa al-Istinjad bi al-Maqbur (زيارة القبور والاستنجاد بالمقبور; Visiting Graves and Seeking Aid from the Entombment) is a theological treatise and legal response written by the Hanbali jurist and theologian Ibn Taymiyya (661–728 AH / 1263–1328 CE) addressing the rules governing grave visitation, intercession, and rituals performed around burial places .
Background and Titles
The work was composed as a detailed legal response (fatwa) to an inquiry regarding widespread practices at shrines and tombs . The text appears in manuscripts and bibliographical literature under several related titles, including:
- Al-Durr al-Manthur fi Ziyarat al-Qubur wa ʿAdam al-Istiʿana bi al-Maqbur
- Risalat Masʾalat al-Qubur wa al-Istinjad bi al-Maqbur or Masʾalat al-Ziyara
- Al-Lumʿa fi al-Ajwiba al-Sabʿ
Scope and Subject Matter
The treatise is structured around a multi-part inquiry inquiring about several popular customs and beliefs :
- Seeking aid (istinjad) from the deceased during personal illness or the sickness of animals, invoking their protection, or taking the entombed person as an intermediary between the petitioner and Allah .
- Making vows (nadhr) of money, livestock, oil, or candles to mosques, Sufi lodges (zawiyas), or spiritual teachers, whether alive or dead .
- Seeking spiritual reinforcement (istighatha) from a shaykh to steady one's heart during distressing events .
- Physical veneration of tombs, such as touching the grave, rubbing one's face on it, or wiping it with hands .
- Attributing the fulfillment of needs to the spiritual blessing (baraka) of a shaykh .
- Holding audition sessions (samaʿ) near burial places and prostrating on the ground before a shaykh's tomb .
- The claim of the existence of a universal spiritual axis (qutb) and universal succor (ghawth jamiʿ) governing existence .
In responding to these points, Ibn Taymiyya categorizes tomb visits into:
- Legitimate visitation (ziyara sharʿiyya): Intended to remember death and the afterlife, while greeting the deceased and offering supplication (duʿaʾ) for them, in line with prophetic traditions .
- Innovated and polytheistic visitation (ziyara bidʿiyya / shirkiyya): Involving supplication addressed to the deceased, asking the deceased to fulfill needs, seeking aid from them, offering vows to shrines, or believing that prayer at tombs possesses intrinsic superiority over prayers in mosques .
Manuscripts and Publication
The work is preserved in several manuscript copies across various libraries:
- A copy in al-Aqsa Mosque Library (no. 381 / Fiqh 72) in 12 folios, written in Naskh script and dating to the 13th century AH .
- A manuscript copied by Muhammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Salim in 1276 AH in Riyadh, transcribed in part from an exemplar by Sulayman ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab .
- A manuscript in the King Fahd National Library (Jerusalem collection, no. 315), transcribed by ʿAli ibn Ibrahim in 1112 AH .
- A manuscript transcribed and collated by Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad Khuqir al-Makki al-Hanbali in 1312 AH in 11 pages .
- A manuscript in the library of Nadwat al-ʿUlama in Lucknow, India (no. 565), consisting of 15 folios and copied in 1292 AH .
- A manuscript preserved in the Alexandria Public Library (no. 18692 / 8419 j) .
The text was printed in Cairo in 1317 AH within a compilation of Ibn Taymiyya's treatises (Rasaʾil Shaykh al-Islam Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya) . It was also published under the title al-Lumʿa fi al-Ajwiba al-Sabʿ, edited by Sulayman ibn Salih al-Ghusn (Dar al-Sumayʿi, 1st ed., 1419 AH), and is incorporated in Majmuʿ al-Fatawa (vol. 27, pp. 64–105) . An edition was also published by the General Presidency of Scholarly Research and Ifta in Saudi Arabia (6th ed., 1430 AH / 2009 CE) .
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