Now that I have accepted Islam and Ahmadiyyat, I understand that on my death I should be buried instead of being cremated. I do not know why burial is so important to Muslims but I would still like to be cremated. Would this be so bad of me as I also can still give vital organs for transplant? Two different questions.
As far as the latter part of the question is concerned, I should answer this first. There is absolutely no harm in donating one’s organs to a live person after his death, I mean to will for that. It’s an act of goodness towards mankind and all acts of goodness are promoted rather than discouraged by Islam, in principle. So anything which is helpful to the general uplift and will of humanity is permissible and in fact encouraged. As far as the first part is concerned, we know of no prophets who were cremated instead of being buried or who preached cremation as against burial.
In fact the Holy Bible mentions all the prophets to have been buried and none to have been cremated. So that is an established practice of the holy people. And when one wants to adopt a particular course for oneself, one should always look for the better example not for the worse example. So if cremation in itself was liked by Allah as such, Allah would have taught his prophets the mode of cremation rather than the mode of burial. Moreover human sanctity as we see it demands that the body should be treated respectfully.
And this is a natural urge as well in human beings to keep the body intact as long as possible. This is why mummification is found in various cultures, various attempts have been made to preserve the body as such. So sanctity of the body itself requires that it should be preserved as far as possible in its own shape. It should not be for instance mutilated in any way. It should not be dismembered. Otherwise this could also be a mode of burial. This would occupy a smaller place.
If you dismember and hack them to pieces, hack a body to pieces and make a jumble of it and bury it in one short place, why not? The human nature doesn’t like it. It likes to treat its dead with respect. And cremation as such is not understood a respectful mode of disposal of human bodies in religious concept at least. So we are talking of religions now. Religion does not like it for another reason perhaps. I mean it’s not said in so many words but this is what I infer. That hell is represented in the form of fire. Hell is also represented in Islam in the form of extremely cold regions. But most often than not it is represented as fire.
Now what fire that be, we don’t know the true nature of that fire. It’s not that log fire which we are acquainted with anyway or the furnace fire to which we are acquainted. It is some sort of fire which is to be created by Allah in the next world which will have more spiritual nature than otherwise. So fire has stood as a symbol of punishment and wrath of Allah. So when you cremate a body that association is very uneasing and discomforting. So that could be one of the reasons why the prophets were never taught to cremate their dead but they were taught positively to bury their dead.
But as far as the jurisprudence is concerned, from jurisprudence point of view, I am not in a position to declare where it is positively prohibited to burn the body. I think there would be some evidence in traditions but for that I’ll have to search or write to the mufti. Mufti, would you remember any tradition where the Prophet has prohibited definitely the dead to be cremated, to be burnt? A person willed that he should be burnt to ashes because he was afraid of Allah’s wrath and punishment. And for those ashes to be partly thrown to rivers and seas and partly thrown to the winds for dispersal in a manner that Allah could never raise him again from the dead. That was his concept of escape from Allah’s punishment.
So in that tradition, the end is very interesting. Allah ultimately forgives him for the extreme fear in which he held Allah. But there is no mention of any ill remark on this mode of disposal of his body. But that’s not necessarily the case. In Islam, the Prophet has definitely given us very clear teachings on everything. So I think we should be able to pinpoint those traditions which speak on this subject in negative terms, I mean. Positively we know. We know no other way of disposal of human bodies at the time of the Prophet but burial.
So that has to be the best mode otherwise the Prophet could not have adopted it and taught it to his companions. That is obvious and very clear. But whether a punishment is mentioned if somebody cremates his body, that I don’t know. Where? So find out.
