Moving a deceased person's remains to a family cemetery

A question about moving a deceased person's remains to a family cemetery, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that a grave may not be opened and the remains moved while the deceased's bones remain in it, and that difficulty of visiting is not a necessity that permits exhumation, since one can pray for the deceased from afar and visit at longer intervals. ¹

The questioner asked about moving a deceased person's remains from a private cemetery to the family cemetery because his children find it hard to reach and visit his grave. ¹

The Department answered that the deceased has sanctity and dignity, citing Surat al-Isra' 17:70, and that graves may not be opened or removed while the bones of the dead remain in them; bones decay only after hundreds of years, as observed in the country. ¹ It cited, as evidence that the dead have the same sanctity as the living, a hadith narrated by Abu Dawud whose meaning is that breaking a dead person's bone is like breaking it while he is alive, and a hadith narrated by Muslim whose meaning is that sitting on an ember that burns through one's clothes to the skin is better than sitting on a grave; part of the deceased's dignity is that his grave not be opened or his sanctity violated. ¹ It said the place where a person is buried counts as an endowment for him, and burial in a public cemetery is better so that more people pray for and visit the dead; since he was buried in a private cemetery, there is no need or necessity to move him near his family so they can visit and pray for him, since prayer can be made from afar, and visits can be made at longer intervals if they are difficult. ¹ It concluded that the grave may not be opened unless the remains have fully decayed. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3693, dated 13 March 2022. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.