Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
How can you say that building on graves is permitted?
Wa alaikum assalamu wa rahmatullah,
The objection itself has been answered previously on www.sunnipath.com.
With this, you can also find the fatwa of Shaykh Muhammad Qaylish, a capable Hanafi faqih, and hadith scholar from Halab, and the clear references to the Hashiya of Ibn Abidin, where the position of permissibility is mentioned as one of the sound positions within the Hanafi school–though the majority permission is impermissibility of building on graves. It was the position chosen by Imam Tumurtashi in his Tanwir al-Absar, and confirmed by him in his commentary Minah al-Ghaffar (of which Shaykh Salah Abu’l Haajj gifted me a manuscript), and other later Hanafi scholars. Imam Haskafi did not differ on this in his commentary on the Tanwir, al-Durr al-Mukhtar.
As such, it is not a matter where condemnation is allowed, as the position that building on grave is permissible is an established position both within the Hanafi school and in other schools of Sunni law.
At the same time, the way of my teachers is to act on the stronger position–not building, but allowing reinforcement on the sides, as Shaykh Qaylish explained in his answer.
Also see:
Is it permitted to build on graves? (Shaykh Amjad Rasheed; Shafii school)
The benefits of visiting graveyards, and the graves of the righteous
Praying in mosques with graves, praying towards a grave
And Allah alone gives success.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani