The prohibition of delaying the burial of a deceased person due to the presence of a large number of people without a valid Islamic excuse, and the clarification that the righteous predecessors used to will that burial be hastened.

The Shaykh : From this branch out legal rulings that the disbelievers do not observe in unison, and then those who imitated them, either with their knowledge of these Islamic rulings or due to their ignorance of them. From this it follows that it is obligatory to hasten the burial of the deceased in a manner of final haste that should not be accompanied by any delay except what is unavoidable. As for intentionally delaying the preparation of the deceased, this is an evil that they present to the righteous man, and this is not permissible in Islam. And if this is among the duties of Muslims in burying their dead, then we know the error we have reached and arrived at in this age, such that in many cases the family of the deceased intentionally delays his burial for nothing except for fame, and to notify the maximum possible number of people so that the funeral appears with grandeur and majesty. This is the thinking of the people of this world. As for the Muslim, it does not matter to him whether the number of those who accompany him or pray over him is large or small.
From here we find the clear, distinct dividing line between our predecessors and our successors. The righteous predecessors, when one of them died, hastened to bury him, and it did not take them more than an hour at most. And they used to will this in their wills during their health and during their death-illness; they used to will the hastening of their burial because of their knowledge of these realities, of which we are now in the process of clarifying some regarding the burial of the deceased and hastening his burial. It was reported from many of the Companions, among them Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, the companion of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), that when he fell ill with his death-illness, he said: "If I die, then hasten my burial, and do not inform anyone of me." Do not inform: do not tell anyone of my death. Those present from the family perform the duty upon them of washing him, shrouding him, and burying him. This is how they were, and this is how we should be. And we today, with great regret, are unable to be like them due to social circumstances and circumstances related to ruling by other than Islam, and many, many other things. But this does not justify the Muslim not to strive according to his ability and capacity to realize this Prophetic matter, which is hastening the preparation of the deceased; for Allah (Mighty and Majestic), in His justice toward His servants, said: .
We, for example, today have systems applied to us in some countries, especially the capitals, that are not applied in some villages, especially the remote ones. So it is necessary, for example, to obtain the medical report as they say, and it is necessary to contact the death office (burial of the dead). And this office is not prepared to accept inquiries except within the limits of the system established for the living, not for the dead. So no preparations whatsoever were made there for such deaths. Therefore, recently, it happened to some of our acquaintances that his mother died between the two prayers of Dhuhr and Asr, so he was unable to bury the deceased until the afternoon of the next day. This is a normal matter regarding this system or this routine as they say. And recently I was visiting my daughter in Jordan, so I visited some villages, and I saw the cemetery there was a modest cemetery. And the conversation turned to the method of burial. He said: Burial here does not require anything at all, not permission or anything else. Digging the grave and burying him, the matter is done.
I said: This was how the matter was in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and the time of the righteous predecessors. But when we connected with Europe and its disbelieving systems and adopted them with their flaws and defects, we were afflicted with what afflicted them, and it must be so; for Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as He said: "The decree of Allah" . So whoever takes the lawful means, therein is ease, good, and blessing, and the opposite is exactly the opposite. From here came the verse that we mentioned on more than one occasion: . This is from the hardship when we cling to rulings that Islam did not bring, so we are afflicted with some tightness and difficulty, and perhaps financial tightness as well. This is as we spoke of on a previous occasion, that the deceased today we worry about his burial; because just as we buy a house for the living, we buy for this deceased as well a house that befits his loss of life. In any case, it is necessary to pay a material value that some of those afflicted with a deceased may be unable to afford: , .
I say: Because of these conditions, the funeral may take a lot and a lot of time, but it is not correct for us to take the causes imposed upon us because of social life as we mentioned; it is not correct for us to measure by them causes that we begin to create and are not forced upon us by force. I gave you an example just now, which is appearing with the funeral as if it is a respected funeral, and that it has a reputation and a word in society; and therefore they delay the burial of the deceased, until some of the Muslims fell into this problem; meaning, in the past and in this time, the funeral is delayed one day and two days, why? So that those from the near and far parts of the country come to accompany it. And this is in reality one of the problems of partisanship for other than Islam; because when a partisan man dies, it is necessary that all those who belong to his party come out with him. And it is not, as you all know, that there is anything of these demonstrations in Islam, but rather something of this showing off. And this is one of the calamities that we do not suffice with living our worldly lives while we show off, until we show off as well at the expense of the deceased. For this reason, we must take from this hadith a lesson from the lessons; and that is that if we are afflicted with a deceased of ours, we must put in our minds the hastening of his burial; for as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in this authentic hadith: .