Is it permissible to establish a shared cemetery for Muslims and non-Muslims?

The questioner : Is it permissible to establish a shared cemetery for Muslims and non-Muslims?

The Shaykh : What did he put?

The questioner : A shared cemetery?

The Shaykh: No, it is not permissible.

The questioner : Even if a road or a passage or a street, for example, separates them, is it not permissible?

The Shaykh : There must be a distance of two *mashriq* between them; because the matter was like this in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); because you know that there are Islamic etiquettes: when a Muslim passes by the graves of Muslims, he greets them and says: , but if he passes by the graves of the polytheists, he says: "I give you the glad tidings of the Fire." So it is not permissible for the cemetery of these to be with the cemetery of those. But also, it is obligatory that the separation between the two cemeteries be far enough so that the living are distinguished from the dead, as is the case with the living of both types; due to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): in life, meaning: they do not neighbor each other. It should be that the standing place of the Muslim is far from the standing place of the polytheist. Therefore, you may know that in many countries, and perhaps also here, though I do not know this with certainty, we have in Damascus and other than Damascus the Jewish quarter and the Christian quarter.

The questioner : In Nablus as well.

The Shaykh : It exists here as well?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Ah, the Jewish quarter and the Christian quarter. This has been inherited from the Muslims since the day Damascus was conquered from the Romans. The Christians are in their quarter, known today as Bab al-Salam and Bab Tuma and the like. Why is this separation? The Muslim and the polytheist do not see each other's fire. The secret of this is very well known from the Sunnah first, and then from psychology second; because psychology clearly states that the environment has an influence, and the influence is of two types: material and spiritual. The material, everyone knows; for example, they care about land infested with plague, they fence it off, and they prevent entry into it, and so on. This is what the Messenger pointed to in the well-known hadith: . But the meaning of spiritual plague, which is moral, is also something the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed to in some hadiths, including the previous hadith: . Clearer than that is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): meaning: for free with money. , in any case, you profit from him, ; so you lose by neighboring the blacksmith, and you profit by neighboring the seller of musk. This is like the Muslim neighboring the disbeliever, and the Muslim neighboring the open sinner. Therefore, it was said in the proverbs, and this research is long and the time has ended:
"Do not ask about a man, but ask about his companion *** For every companion imitates the one he keeps company with"
And the common proverb is: "The companion drags along." If he is a disbeliever, he may drag you to his disbelief, and if he is an open sinner, he may drag you to his open sinfulness. Therefore, the environment today is not an Islamic environment that would justify for the Muslim to marry a second, third, or fourth wife; because this is in this strengthening of the Muslim community. Therefore, he said (peace and blessings be upon him), pointing to this legal reality: . So one of the benefits of dual marriage and what follows it is that this community multiplies. But by Allah, do you not hear with me people complaining of infertility? This all indicates the corruption of society. People complain of infertility, so you find the husband sometimes alone and the wife sometimes alone, sometimes the couple together going from one doctor to another. Why? They want to know the cause, and perhaps they wasted their money and dirhams and dinars in vain; because our Lord has decreed it and stated it in the Noble Qur'an.
Glory be to Allah! Opposite this type of couples are couples to whom our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) has blessed with offspring. Every year, every two years, they do not want them; they mean a few offspring so that they can be at ease in this life. And the woman complains and says: she does not have the energy to serve them, she does not have the energy to raise them if she has a little Islamic philosophy. She feeds the claim with what? That raising these requires raising, she does not have it. So what does she want to do? Either regulation or what? Limitation—they claim! Look how the society is varied in all variation, and what is the Messenger saying? . So if the society were righteous, these contradictions would not exist. If the society were righteous, I would be the first to marry and order the second marriage.
And peace be upon you.