Abul-Haiyaj Haiyan bin Husain said: `Ali bin Abu Talib (May Allah be pleased with him) said to me: "Shall I not send you to do a task that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) had assigned to me? Spare no portrait unwiped out, and leave not a high grave unlevelled."[Muslim].
Commentary:
Drawing pictures and raising graves over the height of a span are forbidden and their removal is the responsibility of Muslim rulers. An Islamic state neither allows pictures, nor does it permit permanent structures over graves, nor graves over a span's height. "Leave not a high grave unlevelled" does not mean levelling them to the ground. What it really means is that these should be reduced to the permissible height.
|