What is the ruling on transporting the deceased by car if the cemetery is far away?

Eid Abbasi : He said: Regarding the issue of transporting the deceased in a car that was mentioned, it was said: This is a blessing because the distance between the deceased's home and the cemetery was not far in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). But today, with this vast distance, is there not a blessing in it? And would the prohibition be a form of restriction?

The Shaykh : This question, in reality, contains negligence, if not willful ignorance, of the fundamental issue we have been discussing. We say: Processioning funerals in cars in the European style is not permissible in Islam. Such that if the cemetery is near, it is obligatory to procession the funeral in a car. But when the cemetery is far, we said that this is a legal excuse. Because we have texts stating that they carried the deceased on a mount because the distance was long. No one knowledgeable in Islam denies this. Because Islam, in reality, trains Muslim individuals on a broad horizon. So this questioner, when he asks this question or when he is fed this question, must consider the factual reality: Are we processioning funerals now because the distance is far and it is difficult for the processioners to attend the funeral due to the distance? Or is it because this is a custom among the customs of the Europeans that has seeped into us, and we have clung to it and been afflicted by imitating them in it? If the answer is the first, that is stubbornness. That we are processioning funerals today for what? That the cemetery is far? Because the reality is that there is no difference between a far cemetery or a near one in terms of adopting this custom.
Second: If this excuse is that it is a blessing from our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) that He bestowed upon us to alleviate these hardships of the long distance, then what is the other blessing for which we decorate the car with garlands and flowers and waste money on it? Perhaps this is also a blessing, because there is beauty and splendor in it, and so on? We take all of this as a package; this is imitating the disbelievers, and it fulfills the warning that the Messenger (peace be upon him) warned us about out of mercy for us and to caution us against it when he said: . They said: O Messenger of Allah, the Jews and the Christians? He said: ; meaning, who were the people in that time who could be imitated by others? They were the Jews and the Christians, because they were the People of the Book, while the rest were unlettered, having no knowledge, no culture, and none of what is called today civilization. And the philosophy of society is always that the weak people imitate the strong people, so the strong people at that time were the Jews and the Christians with what Allah revealed to them of these sacred books, despite what they altered and changed therein. We find the reality of this every day in all aspects of our lives. I spoke in the previous lesson about our clothes and all our attire being European. Are these also blessings from the blessings of Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? This is a fallacy or negligence; that is the least that can be said.
In summary: We say that carrying the funeral for the sake of dire necessity is not an obstacle for us, as dire necessities permit what is more serious than that in the Shari'ah. But we are speaking about the basic general principles of how to follow a funeral: carrying it on the shoulders. Why? Because this is the Sunnah. So either you hasten to him a good, or you remove an evil from your necks. Carrying the funeral, my brothers, on the shoulders means carrying death, which we are heedless of. As for placing the coffin in the car where no one carries it, where no one sees it, and piling straw on a camel's back by covering this car containing the coffin with flowers so that it looks as if there is a groom or a bride; all of this strikes at the goal that the Lawgiver aims for with these specific Islamic etiquettes that you have heard, . For what purpose? So that you remember death. And where is death today, since we have confined it to the car and whatnot? We have wrapped it in these flowers that keep people away from thinking about death? Then what about the mourners afterwards, who do not walk with the car on foot, but also ride? Because of the long distance? It is difficult to carry a funeral from a long distance, but for a person who walks a distance of a quarter of an hour or half an hour, if there were play or amusement, this soft excuse would never cross his mind: that this is a blessing from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
In summary: We must distinguish between general conditions. In general conditions, the funeral must be processioned according to the Sunnah, carried on the shoulders, people exchange and cooperate in carrying it, each of them participates by carrying death on his shoulders, which he is negligent about throughout his life. This is in the general principle. But if the distance is far, for example, he died in the wilderness, and they want to bury him in the cemetery of the village or town, there is no objection to it being carried. But it is necessary that we bring even in the wilderness the special car for carrying the funeral and wrapped in these flowers! All of this is misleading and diverting people from the legal realities in which they are practically turning away. So, adding to the burden, as we say, that they are diverted from it intellectually. These actions are adorned for them with such excuses. And the reality is that these excuses are not applicable in most cases. It has become today the fashion of the modern age to procession the funeral in this manner that contradicts the Sunnah.
We ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to cause us to die upon the Sunnah, upon the Book and the Sunnah.

Eid Abbasi : ... .

The Shaykh: Yes.