Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Enter Question
View By Subject
Fatwa Of The Week
Selected Fatwa
Fatwa CenterRulings related to graves
Question
due to pressure from his family we had to move mayyat to homecountry for funeral against my husbands wish.I came to know few days back that his family has build a cemented grave above his .Again I told them clearly before that my husband was totally against these cemented grave so plz don't do it.They said they won't. Now if they have done it,will it cause sin to my husband too?also they said they made cemented coz this graveyard has been captured illegally in many places and ppl have even build houses and they make one grave over another so made cemented on it.I want to know under these situations is it allowed to move the grave from one to another graveyard where we can keep the real grave type without cementing and where there is no danger of illegal capture of land.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The dead would not be held accountable for the deeds of others as long as he did not command them to be done; this is a fact recorded in the Saying of Allah, the Almighty, {And every soul earns not [blame] except against itself, and no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another.} [Quran, 6:164] Commenting on this verse, Al-Baghawi 
said, “The Saying of Allah, the Exalted, 'and no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another' means that no soul will be bear the burdens of others, that is, no man will be held accountable for the sins committed by others.” So, your husband will not be blamed for that, Allah willing. As for the point on placing cement on the top of the grave, it is permissible unless the height of the grave is more than the lawful limit – a point at which this act would be prohibited since it violates the Sunnah. On that, Imam Muslim narrated on the authority of Jaabir 
that “The Messenger of Allah forbade that the graves should be plastered (made into permanent structures), used as sitting places (for the people) or building over them.” The easiest legal ruling on that issue is that it is disliked – an opinion held by some jurists. In Mawaahib Al-Jaleel, Al-Khattaab Al-Maaliki said, “It is disliked to place mud or rocks on the grave; it is also disliked to plaster it, to build on it and to make a fence around it. Yet, if he intends to show off with these actions, it is prohibited to do any of them. As for making a fence around the grave with the aim of distinguishing it, it is permissible. It is also permissible to place a stone or a piece of wood without any inscriptions at the head of the deceased in the grave. Maalik, on his part, disliked it to place rocks and mud on the grave or to build on it with bricks or stones.”
Jurists furthermore agree that it is permissible to build on the grave in case there is a necessity to do so. In Tuhfatu Al-Muhtaaj, Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami said, “In case it is feared that the grave would be dug, or a wild animal would excavate it, or a flood would destruct it, building on the grave and plastering it (under these cases) are not disliked; rather they may be obligatory.”
It is yet impermissible to dig a grave under the pretext that something has been built on it. The Fiqhi Encyclopedia reads “Jurists agreed on the impermissibility of digging the grave unless there is a valid, legal excuse. They yet agreed that the excuses that make digging a grave a lawful act include the following: when the land (in which the grave is found) is seized by force, when the shroud is seized by force, if money falls into the grave, etc.”
However, if there is a real fear that the grave might be seized by force or be unlawfully dug, it is permissible to move the corpse to another safe grave, since some jurists are of the opinion that it is allowed to dig the grave to move the deceased to a better one. In Al-Inssaaf, Al-Mirdaawi Al-Hanbali said, “According to the most authentic opinion in our School of Jurisprudence, it is allowed to dig the grave for a valid reason, such as placing him in a better shroud or burying him in a better place.”
Allah knows best.
Search Fatwa
Fatwa Subject
