Moving the remains of deceased people to another location

[Polanyi]

ASWRB.

 

 

Yunus Ibn Bakeer reported that Muhammad Ibn Ishaaq reported that Abu Khalid Ibn Dinar reported that Abul Aa'lia said: "When Tastar was invaded, we found, in the treasure house of Al-Harmazan, a bed on which lay a dead man, with a holy script at his bedside. We took the scripture to Umar Ibn Al Khattab. He called Ka-b and he translated it into Arabic, and I was the first Arab to read it. I read it as I read the Qur'an." Here, I (Khalid Ibn Dinar) said to Abul Aa'lia: "What was in it?" He said: "Life history, annals, songs, speech, and what is to come." I asked: "And what did you do with the man?" He said: "We dug in the river bank thirteen separate graves. At nightfall we buried him and leveled all the graves in order to mislead people for they would tamper with him." I asked: "And what did they want from him?" He said: "When the sky was cloudless for them, they went out with his bed, and it rained." I asked: "Who did you think the man was?" He said; "A man called Daniel." I asked: "And for how long had he been dead when you found him?" He said: "Three hundred years." I asked: "Did not anything change on him?" He said: "No, except for the hairs of his face (beard, and mustache); the skin of the prophets is not harmed by the earth, nor devoured by hyenas."

The above story about the Companions removing the remains of what was believed to be the the prophet Danyal( Daniel) is well known and reported in Many several classical Muslim Sources. One of the benefits derived from this story is the permissibility of removing the contents of a dead person if there exists a great fear that the people will trangress in that location, supplicate to the dead and turn it into a place of worship. So here we see an action which was originally forbidden in the Shariah now becomes something which is not only permissible, but also praiseworthy.

 

 

Ibn Kathir has also mentioned this story in his tafsir of Surah Al Kahf. The Scholar wrote:

 

"Allah has cursed the Jews and the Christians who took the graves of their Prophets and righteous people as places of worship) Warning against what they did. We have reported about the Commander of the faithful `Umar bin Al-Khattab that when he found the grave of Danyal (Daniel) in Iraq during his period of rule, he gave orders that news of this grave should be withheld from the people, and that the inscription containing mention of battles etc., that they found there should be buried".

 

http://www.tafsir.com/default.asp?sid=18&tid=30063

 

The Nairobi based Somali Alim- Sh Mohamud Shible- recently held four lectures on the Rulings concerning the graves of the Muslims. He touches upon a number of subjects, including the above incidents I have mentioned and the general conduct Muslims should have towards the graves of the deceased people.

 

ASWRB.

 

(Islamic government of Bladland and Moorishland. Research department)