Veneration of Graves led the Past Nations Astray
“And verily We have raised in every nation a messenger, (proclaiming): Serve God and shun false deities. Then some of them (there were) whom God guided, and some of them (there were) upon whom error had just hold. Do but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for the deniers!.” (Koran 16:36)
God, the Most Merciful, sent Messengers with the pure message of Monotheism to every nation for their guidance. They called their nations towards abandoning of Polytheism and returning to God in repentance. However, as time passed, Polytheism gradually crept into the beliefs of the people, and teachings of the Prophets were either changed or lost. One of the major avenues, by which Satan was successful in leading people astray, was through veneration and exaggeration in the honour and respect of pious people. Satan inspired the people to build idols and memorials, and subsequently led them to the worship of the dead.
The prominent commentator of the Koran, Abdullah Ibn Abbas (God be pleased with him) said regarding the verse, “And they have said: Forsake not your gods. Forsake not Wadd, nor Suwa’, nor Yaghuth and Ya’uq and Nasr.” (Koran 71:23) (he said): “These (Wad, Suaa’, Yaghuth, Ya’uq and Nasr) were among the idols of Prophet Noah’s (peace be upon him) nation, which in time ended up among the Arabs… These idols were named after some righteous men among Noah’s people. When these righteous men died, Satan inspired the people to make statues of them, named after them. These statues were placed in their favourite meeting places as reminders of righteousness, and no one of that generation worshiped them. However, when that generation died off, the purpose of the statues was forgotten. The following generation from then on started to worship them.” (Bukhari 6:442)
Ibn Jarir at-Tabari mentions the explanation of Mujahid about the verse, “Have you then considered al-Lat and al-Uzza” (Koran 53:19) “He (al-Laat) used to serve the pilgrims by preparing Seewaq (fine flour of barley or wheat mixed with water and ghee) for them. After his death, the people began to stay and confine at his grave for the purpose of reward.”
Imam Ibn Katheer (God have mercy on him) mentions in Qasas al-Ambiya: “Ibn Abi Hatim related this story, “Waddan was a righteous man, who was loved by his people. When he died, they withdrew to his grave in the land of Babylonia and were overwhelmed by sadness. When Iblees (name of Satan) saw their sorrow caused by his death, he disguised himself in the form of a man saying, ‘I have seen your sorrow because of this man’s death; can I make a statue like him which could be put in your meeting place to make you remember him?’ They said: ‘Yes.’ So, he made a statue like him. They put it in their meeting place in order to be reminded of him. When Iblees saw their interest in remembering him, he said: ‘Can I build a statue of him in the home of each one of you so that he would be in everyone’s house and you could remember him?’ They agreed. Their children learned about and saw what they were doing. They also learned about their remembrance of him, until they took him to be a deity and worshiped him instead of Allah. So, the first to be worshiped instead of Allah was Waddan, the idol which they named thus.”
This shows that exaggeration in love for the righteous led to the veneration of their graves, and in turn became the first step towards open idol worship.
Amongst the Muslims today Sufism is responsible for Grave-worship and Saint-worship. Sufi teachings exaggerate the position of their living and dead Sheikhs. They claim that their Sheikhs received knowledge directly from God and that even after death Sufi Sheikhs can hear, see, communicate and help the living but this goes against Islamic Monotheism, Koran and the teachings of our Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him).