2] The green dome in Madeenah: its history and the ruling on its construction and on leaving it as it is

2]
The green dome in Madeenah: its history and the ruling on its
construction and on leaving it as it is.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
The history of the green dome
The dome over the grave of the Prophet (peace andblessings of Allaah
be upon him) dates back to the seventh century AH. It was built during
the reignof Sultan Qalawoon, and at first it was the colour ofwood,
then it became white, then blue, then green, and it has remained green
until the present.
Professor 'Ali Haafiz (may Allaah preserve him) said:
There was no dome over the sacred chamber. Therewas in the roof of the
mosque above the chamber a waist-high enclosure of brick to
distinguish the location ofthe chamber from the restof the mosque's
roof.
Sultaan Qalawoon al-Saalihi was the first oneto build a dome over the
chamber. He did that in 678 AH. It was square at the bottom and
octagonalat the top, made of wood,and built on top of the pillars that
surrounded the chamber. Planks of wood were nailed to it, over which
plates of lead were placed, and the brickenclosure was replaced with
one made of wood.
The dome was refurbished at the time of al-Naasir Hasan ibn Muhammad
Qalawoon, then the leaden plates slipped, but they were fixed and
refurbished at the time of al-Ashraf Sha'baan ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad
in 765 AH. It fell into disrepair and wasrenovated at the time of
Sultaan Qayit Bey in 881 AH.
The chamber and dome were burned in the fire that swept through the
Prophet's mosque in 886 AH. During the reign of Sultaan Qayit Bey the
dome was rebuilt, in 887 AH, and strong pillars to support it were
built in the floor of the mosque, and they were built of bricks to the
correct height. After the dome had been built in the manner described
above, cracks appeared in its upper part. When it proved impossible
to refurbish it, the Sultaan Qayit Bey ordered that the upper part be
demolished and rebuilt strongly using white plaster. So it was built
solidly in 892 AH.
In 1253 AH, an order was issued by the Ottoman Sultan 'Abd al-Hameed
to paint the dome green. He was the first one to colourit green, and
the colour has been renewed whenever necessary until the present.
It became known as the green dome after it was painted green. It was
previously known as the white dome or the fragrant dome or the
bluedome. End quote.
Fusool min Tareekh al-Madeenah al-Munawwarah by 'Ali Haafiz (p. 127, 128).
Secondly:
Rulings thereon
The scholars, both in the past and in modern times,criticized the
building of this dome and its being given a colour. All of that is
because of what they know of sharee'ah closingmany doors for fear of
falling into shirk.
These scholars include thefollowing:
1 – al-San'aani (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in Ta-theer al-I'tiqaad:
If you say: A great dome has been built over the grave of the
Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), costing a great
deal of money, I say: This is in fact great ignorance of the
situation, because thisdome was not built by him (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) or by his Sahaabah or by those who followed
them,or by those who followed the Taabi'een, or by the scholars and
imams of theummah. Rather this domewas built over his grave (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) on the orders of one of the later
kings of Egypt, namely the Sultan Qalawoon al-Saalihi who is known as
King Mansoor,in 678 AH, and was mentioned in Tahqeeq al-Nasrah bi
Talkhees Ma'aalim Dar al-Hijrah. These are things that were done on
the orders of the state and not on the basis of shar'i evidence. End
quote.
2 – The scholars of the Standing Committee for Issuing Fatwas were asked:
There are those who take the building of the green dome over the
Prophet's grave in the Prophet's Mosque as evidence that it is
permissible to build domes over other graves, such as those of the
righteous and others. Is this argument correct or what should our
responseto them be?
They replied:
It is not correct to quote the fact that people built a dome over the
grave of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) as
evidence that it is permissible to build domes over the graves of the
righteous dead and others, because those people's building a dome over
his grave (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was haraam and
those who did it sinned thereby, because they went against what is
proven in a report from Abu'l-Hayaaj al-Asadi who said: 'Ali ibn Abi
Taalib (may Allaah be pleased with him) said to me: Shall I not send
you on the samemission as the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) sent me? Do not leave any image without erasing
it or any high grave without levelling it.
And it was narrated that Jaabir (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: :->