Writing that is meant solely to record the deceased’s name so the grave can be identified is permissible. As for the kind of inscription that resembles what the people of the pre-Islamic era used to do—writing the person’s name together with words of praise, recounting that he accomplished this or that, or adding other forms of eulogy, or even inscribing lines of poetry—this is forbidden. The same ruling applies to what some uninformed people do when they engrave on the headstone Surah al-Fatihah, for example, or other Qur’anic verses; all of this is unlawful. Whoever notices such a stone in the cemetery must remove it, for it is an evil that must be eliminated. Allah alone grants success.