The places of prayer are to be for Allaah alone, so do not invoke or worship anyone along with Allaah

Sharh-ul-Usool-ith-Thalaathah by Shaikh Saalih al-Fawzaan
Translated by Dawud Burbank rahimahullaah
Below in the Transcription of the Audio Explanation of Dawud Burbank

And the proof is His saying, He the Most High:

And that the places of prayer are to be for Allaah alone, so do not invoke or worship anyone along with Allaah. [72:18]⁹ 

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[9]:

Allaah is not pleased that anyone should be associated with Him, no matter who it is, and this is stated clearly in the Book and in the Sunnah, however, to one who uses the intellect and who thinks carefully, and who discards blind following and the use of false and futile excuses, and who is alert to his own benefit. And the proof that Allaah is not pleased that anyone else besides Him should be associated with Him no matter who it is, is His saying, He the Most High:

And that the places of prayer are to be for Allaah alone, so do not invoke or worship anyone along with Allaah. [72:18] 

Al-Masaajid, (the mosques), are the houses of Allaah and they are the places which are prepared for the Salaah (prayer) and they are the most beloved of places to Allaah, and they are houses which Allaah has commanded should be raised and in which His Name should be mentioned. Then these mosques must be made a place for the worship of Allaah alone, nothing for other than Allaah must occur within them, so graves are not to be built in them, nor tombs because the Prophet sallallaahu‘alaihiwasallam cursed those who did that, and he informed that this is the practice of the Jews and the Christians and he forbade us from that at the end of his life, whilst he was in the throes of death ‘alaihissalaatuwassalaam with his saying:

“Indeed those who came before you used to take the graves as places of prayer…”  (he said this whilst he was dying), “…Indeed do not take the graves as places of prayer, for I certainly forbid you from that.”[1] 

And he sallallaahu‘alaihiwasallam said:

“Allaah’s curse is upon the Jews and the Christians, they took the graves of their Prophets as places of prayer.”[2]

So the mosques, it is obligatory that they be purified from traces of shirk and idolatory and that they not be built upon the graves, nor should the dead be buried in them after they have been built, rather they should be places for the worship of Allaah alone, the prayer should be established in them, and the Name of Allaah should be mentioned in them, and the Qur’aan should be recited in them, and beneficial lessons should be established in them, and people should remain in them for worship. This is the role of the mosques.

As for having in them idols which are worshipped besides Allaah, then these are not mosques, these are shrines of shirk, even if their people call them mosques, because Allaah says:

And that the mosques, the places of prayer, are for Allaah [72:18]

Meaning: not for anyone else besides Him. And because the mosques, they are the place where the people gather and meet, so it is obligatory that they should be pure and free of shirk and bid‘ah (innovations) and false superstitions, because the people acquire knowledge in them and worship, so if anything from shirk and false superstitions are found in the mosques, then they will be influenced by that and they will propagate it upon earth, so it is obligatory that mosques should be purified from shirk.

And the greatest of them is al-Masjid-ul-Haraam (the Sacred Mosque, in Makkaah), just as Allaah, the Majestic and Most High commanded that it should be purified, He the Most High said:

And remember when We showed the site for the House to Ibraaheem and commanded him, that you should not associate anything with Me, and purify My house, for those people who are performing Tawaaf and for those who are standing in prayer and performing the bowing and prostration. [22:26] 

Purify it from what? Purify it from shirk, and from innovations and false superstitions, just as it is also to be purified from impurities and filthy things.

So His saying, He the Most High:

Do not call upon or invoke [72:18] 

The, “laa”, is the, ‘no of prohibition’. And the, “tad‘oo”, is a present tense verb which is in the jussive form because of the prohibiting, “laa”, and the sign that it is the jussive form is the removal of the, ‘noon’. So the factor which makes it jussive is the, ‘no of prohibition’.

So do not invoke, O people, anyone along with Allaah, do not supplicate for help from anyone along with Allaah, such as saying, “O Allaah, O Muhammad”, “O Allaah, O Abd-ul-Qaadir”, or saying, “O Abd-ul-Qaadir, O Muhammad”, or the like of that, because Allaah is not pleased with that and will not accept it.

And His saying He the Most High, “ahadan”, (anyone): is in indefinite form in the context of a prohibition, so therefore it is general to everyone, no-one is excepted, neither any angel drawn close nor any prophet sent, nor any idol, nor any object of worship, nor any grave, nor any Shaikh, nor any beloved servant of Allaah, nor any living person, nor any dead person, no matter who it is.

So it is general covering everyone who is called upon besides Allaah

So do not call upon, do not invoke anyone along with Allaah. [72:18]

So this aayah shows that worship will not benefit except with tawheed, and that if shirk is mixed with it, then it becomes null and void and it will be an affliction for the person. Then He the Most High said:

And the places of prayer are for Allaah [72:18]

It is obligatory that they be built purely and sincerely, that the intention of the one building them should not be to show off or to be heard of or to be remembered as they say, or to be just Islaamic antiquities, all of this is futile.

Mosques should be built for worship and with the intention of worship, and the intention in them should be purely and sincerely for Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, and also they should be built from good and pure earnings, they should not be built from forbidden earnings because they are for Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, and:

“Allah does not accept except what is good and pure”[3]

So the mosques are to be built from lawful spending and the intention of their builders is that it is to be done purely and sincerely seeking the Face of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, he should not intend by building it to obtain praise from the people, or to be remembered, or for show, or to be heard of, because building the mosques is worship and worship, it is obligatory that it should be done purely and sincerely for Allaah the Mighty and Majestic.

Footnotes

[1]  Reported by Muslim as hadeeth 532 from a hadeeth of Jundub ibn ‘Abdillaah al-Bajalee radiyallaahu‘anhu

[2] Reported by al-Bukhaaree as hadeeth 435 and 436 and by Muslim as hadeeth 531 from a hadeeth of ‘Aa’ishah and of Ibn ‘Abbaas radiyallaahu‘anhum

[3]  Reported by Muslim hadeeth 1015 from a hadeeth of Aboo Hurayrah radiyallaahu‘anhu with the wording that Allaah’s Messenger sallallaahu‘alaihiwasallam said, “O mankind, Allaah is Pure, He does not accept except what is good and pure.”

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Sharh-ul-Usool-ith-Thalaathah by Shaikh Saalih al-Fawzaan