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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Is it permissible to pay the interest-based bank in installments for the purpose of transporting, preparing, and burying the deceased (as is the case in Europe)?

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The questioner : We have a question regarding the deceased in Europe. We are traveling tomorrow, and we will return, if Allah wills, and we want to take advantage of this opportunity. When a Muslim dies in the Netherlands, specifically, and in Europe generally, he may be buried in cemeteries designated for Muslims, but for a temporary, fixed period. Then these graves are dug up. Some of our brothers say, and as is known, it is not permissible to transport a body from one country to another. So, if a Muslim is buried in the cemeteries designated for them in the Netherlands, it requires costs of ten thousand guilders, which is approximately four thousand Jordanian dollars.

The Shaykh : Burying him?

The questioner : Burying him?

The Shaykh : Transporting him or burying him? Clarify.

The questioner : Before he is buried, he is in one of two situations: either he is buried in the Netherlands and they buy the land for a temporary period, or he is transported, but he cannot do so because he is either unemployed or works but his salary does not help him with that. There are, of course, interest-based banks where one pays, for example, an installment of money every year, and they take responsibility for transporting him and all members of his family if they die there. So, is there a way out of this issue?

The Shaykh : The way out exists, and it is fleeing from the lands of disbelief. Even if he dies, he dies in an Islamic land and is buried there. It is not permissible to make an excuse for burying the dead in graves that Muslims know the outcome of this burial is digging up, and that is inevitable. This is not an excuse that obligates them to transport a dead person from the land of disbelief to the nearest Islamic land where he is buried. This is not an excuse. Therefore, as we say, and recently we mentioned the Syrian colloquial saying: the one who does not want to see false dreams does not sleep between the graves. And the disbelievers are the dead, not the living. Therefore, it is not permissible for a Muslim to live among them, as I think we discussed in detail in the home of Abu al-Harith. Therefore, there is no way out here except one of two paths:
The first: and it is obligatory that they flee to Allah by migrating from the lands of disbelief to the lands of the Levant, unless they are able to apply at least the Islamic rulings that they are capable of applying in the Islamic lands, with all its difficulties and hardships. That is: if they are able in those lands to apply the Islamic rulings with the condition I mentioned to you in the home of Abu al-Harith: if there is in that disbeliever land a group of people of knowledge and virtue who can encompass with their knowledge and their upbringing the Islamic party residing in that land. With this last condition and the one before it: it is permissible for them to continue their residence in the lands of disbelief. And it was clarified to you that it falls under the first condition: that they have cemeteries distinguished from the cemeteries of the disbelievers. And if they are distinguished, as you say, by way of leasing, but for a limited time, its consequence, as I said, is digging up, or meaning that the grave of a dead person is destroyed and goes to waste.
The Shaykh: If all these conditions are met: it is permissible for the Muslims who are afflicted with traveling to those lands to remain residing in them. Otherwise, flee, flee. Is the answer clear?
Source www.al-albany.com

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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