| Answer:
According to the Qur’ān, enjoining what is good and forbidding what is evil
are among the obligations of an Islamic State (see Sūrah Haj verse 41). To
obliterate every manifestation of shirk (polytheism), therefore is an
obligation which a state must carry out. Shrines of saints if they become
centres of shirk can be razed down by the state. However, if a state can
purify them of polytheistic practices, without actually dismembering them,
then it is not necessary to raze them down. The real thing is to eliminate
polytheistic practices at such places.
It must also
be kept in mind that no one else except the state has any authority to tamper
with such places. |