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Gambia: Imam Fatty’s View on Mosque-Based Graves Debunked

Alhaji Abdoullah Secka, a concerned Muslim elder, has refuted Imam Fatty’s contention that orthodox Islamic practices and beliefs do not sanction the burying of the dead in mosques, describing it as wrong and baseless.

In an interview with The Point yesterday, the renowned Muslim elder in Serekunda, said that if Prophet Muhammed (P.B.U.H) was interred in a mosque together with his first and second Caliphs, Abubacarr and Omar respectively, then there is no problem in burying other Muslims in a mosque.

“The Imam should have said that it is wrong for someone to go to the mosque for the simple reason that someone was buried there but not for the purpose of worshipping Allah,” he added.

“ If the prophet was buried in a mosque together with some of his predecessors and his daughter, then I do not see any reason why he [the Imam] as a Muslim is rejecting the burial of certain people in mosques. It is wrong to say that people couldn’t be buried in mosques,” Secka posited.

It would be recalled that the State House Imam made his assertion in a sermon at the inauguration of a mosque at Bakoteh East. The Imam in his sermon pointed out that mosques are supposed to be places of retreat for Muslims, emphasising that all the graves currently in mosques should be relocated to public cemeteries in accordance with what he termed as acceptable Islamic principle.