Chapter Six: Burial
The scholars unanimously agree that burying the deceased is obligatory. Its basis is the Almighty’s saying:
“Have We not made the earth a receptacle, for the living and the dead?” (Q 77:25–26),
and His words: “Then Allah sent a crow scratching in the earth …” (Q 5:31).
Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī considered the plastering of graves reprehensible, whereas Abū Ḥanīfah permitted it. Likewise, some jurists disliked sitting on graves, while others allowed it, understanding the prohibition to apply only when one sits on them to relieve himself.
The reports that speak of this prohibition include the ḥadīth of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh: “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—forbade plastering graves, writing upon them, sitting on them, and building over them.”
Another is the narration of ʿAmr ibn Ḥazm: “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—saw me on top of a grave and said, ‘Get down from the grave; do not harm the inhabitant of the grave and he will not harm you.’”
Those who permit sitting on a grave cite what is related from Zayd ibn Thābit: “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—only forbade sitting on graves when it is for passing wind, defecating, or urinating.” They also adduce the report of Abū Hurayrah, in which the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “Whoever sits on a grave to urinate or defecate is as if he were sitting on a burning coal from the Fire.” This is the view adopted by Mālik, Abū Ḥanīfah, and al-Shāfiʿī.
Here ends the first volume; the second begins with the Book of Zakāh.