As a person living overseas, I often think about the possibility of what would happen if a Muslim or Muslimah dies in a country that is not his or her home land. Every person can die anywhere at any time if the time has come and if that happens, where should his/her family bury the deceased? What is the perspective according to Islamic law?
Death is not something that is comfortable to talk about because usually every human is scared to death. Even as I write this topic my heart is pounding and to be honest, I am afraid to use the word ‘I’ (for the above paragraph) instead of using ‘a Muslim or Muslimah.’
There are two problems that occur when someone dies in another country and his/her family wants to bury or move the body from the country where he/she died to other country. The problems are:
- Moving the corpse to another country before the body has been buried. In this case there are several opinions by respective madhhab or school of thought.
- According to Hanbali, it is sunnah for the dead to be buried in the place where he/she was killed by an enemy or the place where he/she was to die, as the words of the Prophet (SAW):
“Let every corpse be buried in a place where his soul is taken.” (Narrated by Ahmad and Ashabus Sunan).
While it is makruh to move the deceased to another country without a right purpose, as in the history of Aisha (RA) when Abdurrahman ibn Abu Bakr died in Habsy – a country that is just 12 miles from Medina – then he was moved to Mecca, and when Aisha (RA) visited his grave she said,
“By Allah if I was by your side at the time then I would not bury you unless it was somewhere you died; if I saw you I would not visit you.” (Narrated by Tirmidhi).
- Hanafi and Maliki scholars believe that the deceased is allowed to be moved from one country to another if the body has not been buried yet.
According to the Hanafi school, they allow moving the deceased if it’s only one or two miles but it is sunnah to be buried where he died or where he was killed, according to hadith where the Prophet (SAW) ordered the burying of people who were killed (martyred) in the battle of Uhud where they died, whereas the burial place of Medina is not far from it. Another case is when several companions (who rode to the country of Damascus) were buried in the entrances of the country and they all were not buried in one place.
- The scholars of the Shafi’i school of thought hold that it is forbidden to move the body to another country even though the deceased has not been buried yet and though there is no smell change from the dead body. That’s because it will cause delay in the funeral and disturb his/her honor. (Al Fiqhul Islami wa Adillatuhu juz II from 1538 to 1539).
