Burial vis--vis Cremation
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi
wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers has
asked this question:
Could you please discuss islamic reasons for the burial
as we practise as opposed to creamation as practised by hindus
(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement.
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received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
In the
name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and who-ever He allows to fall astray,
none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no
person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but
Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and
the seal of His Messengers.
Since
the very first man died on earth, Allah has guided man to bury their dead in
the earth.
Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 20 Surah Ta Ha verse 55: We have created you from this earth and We shall return you into it, and then We shall bring you forth out of it once again!
We can
try and determine the wisdom behind humans being buried, so that it may
increase our faith in our guidance from the Holy Quran.
There is
a definite amount of dignity of the dead person in burial in Islam. We wash the dead person, then we perfume
him, then we dress him in dignity, and then the muslims gather and pray to
Allah for the forgiveness of the dead person’s soul. And then we bury him in the ground. Then we mark the grave so
that the dead man’s family can visit the grave and pray to Allah constantly to
forgive him, and also remember to straighten their lives as one day they too
will have to lie down in their own graves.
To bury
the dead is in tandem with the environment from the very first day. If we were to leave the body above the earth
as some people do, they would either be brutalized by wild animals, or if left
alone the body would rot, giving rise to germs, bad smell and diseases. In
burial, the human body is laid to rest in dignity.
Some
religions prefer to cremate their dead.
Fire has always been a sign of Allah’s wrath and anger and the promised
torture for the dis-believers is the eternal burning fire of Hell. All the three divine religions Judism,
Christianity and Islam have always buried their dead in guidance from their
Prophets.
There
are numerous other blessings in burying the dead, and the one reason that
should suffice for the muslims is that this is the way shown to us by Allah and
His Messengers of putting our dead to rest.
May
Allah guide you and us all to the Siraat al-Mustaqeem
Whatever
written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance,
and whatever of error is of me. Allah
Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your
brother and well wisher in Islam,
Burhan
