Saudis
risk new Muslim division with proposal to move Mohamed’s tomb
ANDREW JOHNSON Monday 01 September 2014
One of Islam’s most revered holy
sites – the tomb of the Prophet Mohamed – could be destroyed and his body
removed to an anonymous grave under plans which threaten to spark discord
across the Muslim world.
The controversial proposals are part of a consultation document by a
leading Saudi academic which has been circulated among the supervisors of
al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque in Medina, where the remains of the Prophet are
housed under the Green Dome, visited by millions of pilgrims and venerated as
Islam’s second-holiest site. The formal custodian of the mosque is Saudi
Arabia’s ageing monarch King Abdullah.
The plans, brought to light by
another Saudi academic who has exposed and criticised the destruction of holy
places and artefacts in Mecca – the holiest site in the Muslim world – call for
the destruction of chambers around the Prophet’s grave which are particularly
venerated by Shia Muslims.
The 61-page document also calls for
the removal of Mohamed’s remains to the nearby al-Baqi cemetery, where they
would be interred anonymously.
There is no suggestion that any
decision has been taken to act upon the plans. The Saudi government has in the
past insisted that it treats any changes to Islam’s holiest sites with “the
utmost seriousness”.
But such is the importance of the
mosque to both Sunni and Shia Muslims that Dr Irfan al-Alawi warned that any
attempt to carry out the work could spark unrest. It also runs the risk of
inflaming sectarian tensions between the two branches of Islam, already running
perilously high due to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
Hardline Saudi clerics have long
preached that the country’s strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam – an
offshoot of the Sunni tradition – prohibits the worship of any object or
“saint”, a practice considered “shirq” or idolatrous.
Dr Alawi, director of the Islamic
Heritage Research Foundation, told The Independent: “People visit the chambers,
which are the rooms where the Prophet’s family lived, and turn towards the
burial chamber to pray.
“Now they want to prevent pilgrims
from attending and venerating the tomb because they believe this is shirq, or
idolatry. But the only way they can stop people visiting the Prophet is to get
him out and into the cemetery.”
For centuries Muslim pilgrims have
made their way to Mecca in order to visit the Kaaba – a black granite cubed
building said to be built by Abraham, around which al-Masjid al-Haram, or the
Grand Mosque, is built, and towards which every Muslim faces when they pray.
This pilgrimage, or hajj, is a
religious duty that has to be carried out at least once in a lifetime.
Many go on to make their way to the
nearby city of Medina to pay their respects at the Prophet’s tomb.
Al-Nabawi mosque around the tomb has
been expanded by generations of Arabian rulers, particularly the Ottomans. It
includes hand-painted calligraphy documenting details of the Prophet’s life and
his family. Dr Alawi said the plans also call for these to be destroyed as well
as the Green Dome which covers the Prophet’s tomb.
The Prophet is venerated by both
branches of Islam, Sunni and Shia. The strict Wahhabi sect is a branch of the
Sunni faith, however, and removing the Prophet could further inflame tensions
between the two groups .
The current crisis in Iraq has
been blamed on the Shia former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s sectarianism,
which alienated the Sunni, leading to the uprising. Isis, also known as Islamic
State, which holds swathes of Iraq and Syria, and which murdered the American
journalist
James Foley, is a Sunni organisation.
Mainstream Sunni Muslims would be
just as aghast at any desecration of the tomb as the Shia, Dr Alawi said.
The Independent has previously
revealed how the multibillion-pound expansion of the Grand Mosque has,
according to the Washington-based Gulf Institute, led to the destruction of up
to 95 per cent of Mecca’s millennium-old buildings. They have been replaced
with luxury hotels, apartments and shopping malls.
King Abdullah has appointed the
prominent Wahhabi cleric and imam of the Grand Mosque, Abdul Rahman al-Sudais,
to oversee the expansion project – necessary to cope with the huge number of
pilgrims who now visit each year.
Dr Alawi says the consultation
document for the al-Nabawi mosque in Medina, by the leading Saudi academic Dr Ali
bin Abdulaziz al-Shabal of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh,
has been circulated to the Committee of the Presidency of the Two Mosques.
Several pages of the consultation
document have just been published in the presidency’s journal. They call for
the destruction of the rooms surrounding the tomb – used by the Prophet’s wives
and daughters, and venerated by the Shia because of their association with his
youngest daughter, Fatima.
The document also calls for the Green
Dome, which covers the tomb and these living quarters, to be removed, and the
ultimate removal of the Prophet’s body to a nearby cemetery.
The al-Baqi cemetery already contains
the bodies of many of the Prophet’s family, including his father who was
removed there in the 1970s, Dr Alawi said. In 1924 all the grave markers were
removed, so pilgrims would not know who was buried there, and so be unable to
pray to them.
“The Prophet would be anonymous,”
Dr Alawi added. “Everything around the Prophet’s mosque has already been
destroyed. It is surrounded by bulldozers. Once they’ve removed everything they
can move towards the mosque. The imam is likely to say there is a need to
expand the mosque and do it that way, while the world’s eyes are on Iraq and
Syria. The Prophet Mohamed’s grave is venerated by the mainstream Sunni, who
would never do it. It is just as important for the Shia too, who venerate the
Prophet’s daughter, Fatima.
“I’m sure there will be shock across
the Muslim world at these revelations. It will cause outrage.”
The Independent was unable to contact
the Saudi Arabian embassy, but it said in a statement last year: “The
development of the Holy Mosque of Makkah al-Mukarramah [Mecca] is an extremely
important subject and one which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in its capacity as
custodian of the two holy mosques, takes with the utmost seriousness. This role
is at the heart of the principles upon which Saudi Arabia is founded.”
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