Cemetery (maqbara)

A cemetery is the place of graves, and a grave is the place where a dead person is buried. ¹

The Hanafis dislike prayer in a cemetery, as a likely place of impurity, unless a place is set aside for prayer with no grave or impurity. The Malikis allow it in a cemetery whether kept up or decayed. The Shafi'is hold it invalid in a cemetery known to have been dug up, and valid with reprehension where digging is not known; the Hanbalis hold it invalid in any cemetery. On funeral prayer in a cemetery, the Hanafis and one report from Ahmad find no harm, while the Shafi'is and Hanbalis in one view dislike it. ^{1 2}

The majority of Hanafis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis do not dislike reciting the Qur'an in cemeteries and consider it recommended; the Malikis dislike it. Walking in sandals is not reprehensible for the majority, but the Hanbalis dislike it. The Shafi'is dislike staying the night in a cemetery without need, for its loneliness; the Hanafis dislike sleeping beside a grave. ^{2 4}

For the Hanafis, once a body has turned to dust another may be buried in the same grave, and the ground may be sown or built upon; Malik distinguishes earlier and newer graves. For the Hanbalis sowing and building are allowed once the body has become bones, provided the founder's condition is not broken. ⁴

The Hanafis dislike cutting green plants in a cemetery but allow dry ones, and hold that a cemetery can serve as a boundary if it is a mound. Ownership of trees depends on whether the land was a cemetery before or after the tree grew. If a cemetery is endowed for one group, the sounder Shafi'i view confines burial to that group, while the Malikis require the founder's condition to be kept. ^{4 5 3}

The Shafi'is and Hanbalis forbid relieving oneself in cemeteries; the Hanafis dislike it, and Ibn 'Abidin takes the dislike as close to forbidden. ³