Video of martyr's shrine falsely shared as 'Prophet Mohammed's tomb'

  • Published on July 16, 2024 at 04:21
  • 2 min read
  • By AFP Indonesia
A video appearing to show a glass tomb has been shared millions of times in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed the resting place of the Prophet Mohammed. It in fact corresponds to similar images of a tomb of a Shiite Muslim martyr in Iraq. The tomb of the Prophet Mohammed is housed in a mosque in Saudi Arabia, and the grave cannot be seen as it is surrounded by several walls.

"The tomb of Prophet Mohammed PBUH is revealed, we can see it from up close," reads Indonesian-language text above a clip shared on SnackVideo on July 3, 2024.

The clip shows a close-up view of what appears to be a glass coffin that has been covered with a black cloth adorned with Arabic writing. People gathered around it appear to be weeping.

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Screenshot of the false SnackVideo post, captured on July 10, 2024

Similar clips were shared elsewhere on SnackVideo, as well as on YouTubeTikTok, and Facebook, racking up more than 2.6 million views.

But the clip does not show the Prophet Mohammed's grave.

His grave, and those of his two close companions, Abu Bakr and Umar, is housed inside the Sacred Chamber of the Masjid Nabawi or Prophet's Mosque in Saudi Arabia (archived links here and here).

The mosque is considered one of Islam's holiest sites and visited by millions from around the world.

According to an online guide for pilgrims, the grave itself cannot be seen as it is surrounded by several walls that have neither windows nor doors.

Shrine in Karbala

A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google led to a similar clip titled, "Real Grave of Hazrat Aoun Bin Abdullah a.s in Karbala Iraq", which was uploaded on the Najaf TV YouTube channel on October 7, 2022 (archived link).

Aoun bin Abdullah was a nephew of Hussein, whom Shiite Muslims view as the rightful successor to the Prophet Mohammed, the issue at the heart of a schism with Sunni Islam.

He was martyred in the 7th century Battle of Karbala, and his tomb is located at the Shrine Hazrat Aoun Ibnu Abdullah in the city (archived links here and here). 

Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and the Najaf TV video (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP:

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Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared clip (left) and the Najaf TV video (right)

The same elements can also be seen in another video of the tomb uploaded to the verified YouTube channel of Shakir Ali Najafi, an Iraqi writer and photographer, as well as on an Arabic-language website here (archived links here and here).

AFP has debunked other false posts that claimed to show the tomb of the Prophet Mohammed here, here and here.

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