Assalaamu alaykum. Please answer my question briefly, and do not refer to another fatwa. There is a masjid in our locality. After the death of the person who gave the land for that masjid, that person was buried in front of the masjid. However, the grave is attached to the wall of the Qiblah (prayer direction). Not every praying person of the first row can see the grave through the windows of the wall of the Qiblah; some of them can only see the grave if they turn their face 30-40 degrees right or left. Is the prayer in that masjid valid?

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

As long as there is a wall between the masjid and the grave, then there is no harm in praying in this masjid, according to the view that we adopt here at Islamweb.

However, it is better to add another separation, other than the wall of the masjid, because some scholars are of the view that the wall of the masjid alone is not enough.

Kash-shaaf Al-Qinaa’ – a Hanbali book of Fiqh – reads, “The wall of the masjid is not enough; this is explicitly and decisively stated by a group of scholars... but the apparent view in Al-Furoo’, Al-Mubdi’, and other books is that the wall of the masjid is enough.”

Shaykh Muhammad ibn Ibraaheem said, “If the graveyard is in the direction of the Qiblah and it is considered close according to custom and there is no partition between the worshipers and the grave, or if there is a special belief in regard to praying around these graves, then this is prohibited and the prayer is not valid in such a case. Also, prayer in the graveyard is not valid, and the wall of the graveyard alone is not enough, neither is the wall of the masjid alone; rather, there must be a separate partition between them (the masjid and the graveyard).”

Among those who believe that the wall alone is not enough, especially if the grave can be seen from behind the windows, is Shaykh Al-Albaani as he said in Tahtheer As-Saajid min Ittikhaath al-Quboor Masaajid, “If the grave can be seen from the masjid, even from behind the windows, iron, and doors, then this does not remove the prohibition...”

Therefore, it is better to build a wall other than the wall of the masjid's Qiblah of the masjid in order to avoid the difference of opinion. It is for this reason that Ibn Baaz said, “If there are any graves in the Qiblah of the masjid, then it is better to have another wall between the masjid and the graveyard other than the wall of the masjid, or a road that separates them; this is better and more appropriate so that the worshipers would not be directly facing the graves.”

The view that we adopt here at Islamweb, as we have already mentioned, is that the wall of the masjid is enough. Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen was asked about the separation between the graveyard and the masjid by the wall of the masjid only, and he replied, “If the graveyard is on the right of the person facing the Qiblah or on his left or behind him, then there is no harm … but if the graves are in the direction of the Qiblah, then the matter is more serious, and were it not for the wall of the masjid which separates the masjid from the graves, we would say that the prayer is not valid at all, because the Prophet said, ‘Do not pray facing the graves.’”

Allah knows best.