The Passing of Tuan Guru Harun Din -- Bury in the Land You Die

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi ra ji'un. Indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him is the return. We are saddened by the passing of another great Malaysian Muslim scholar and a Malaysian dignitary, Tuan Guru Harun Din. He died yesterday in California and buried in California per his wishes. Indeed, he has set a great example for people and not make it a practice or tradition to transport their dead back to their home countries. May Allah reward him and his family for influence, forgive all his sins and place him among the righteous. Ameen.

If one keeps all the texts on this issue in view, one will accept that the pure Shar'iah emphasizes that the dead be buried as soon as possible regardless of the land they may be in, unless there may be fear of the desecration of their bodies.

One should bury the deceased as soon as possible. Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “Speed up the funeral; if it is one of a good person, you are only taking that person to a good prospect. If otherwise, then he is no more than an evil you are putting off your shoulders.” [Bukhari]

Abdullah ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with father and son) narrates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, “I heard Allah’s Messenger say: When anyone of you dies, do not keep his body. Be speedy when taking him to his grave.” (Tabraani)

There are differences of opinions regarding the distance allowed to take the deceased from one place to another. One view is 48 miles whilst another is one or two miles. Anything above that is Makruh Tahrimi. (Raddul Muhtar p.146 v.3

It is not permissible for a dying person to make a bequest of transporting his body to another country; therefore, it would not be permissible to carry out such an order.

To delay the burial just so that the deceased may be buried in his home country is causing unnecessary pain to the dead person. Whenever the Companions would die in far off lands, they would rarely if ever be transported back to their original homes, even though in their case they came from the best places in the world i.e. Makkah and Madinah. Thus, we find their graves scattered all over the world in a plethora of distant places where they had gone to spread the religion.

This unfortunate practice of transporting the dead to other countries must be stopped and people should be alerted of its unIslamic nature and that in fact a person could be committing a very big sin by doing this. Aside from the harsh manner of transport on the plane, where the body is shoved around, according to the regulations that govern the transport of bodies overseas, the corpse must undergo special treatment which involves cutting open the body, removing organs including the eyes and filling it with chemical preservative all of which is completely forbidden.

May Allah grant us excellent ending and forgive us, our parents and all the Muslims, the living and from the dead among them. Ameen.

Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa 'ala aalihi wa sahbihi wasallam.

And Allah knows best and is Most Wise, and He alone grants success, and to Him is the final return of all.

Wassalaam