1. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims
  2. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

27 Questions

Is it permissible to attend the burial of a non-Muslim relative?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

It is allowed to attend the funeral as a social gathering with out taking part in any non Muslim religious practice.

Wassalam.
Where is the sacred head of Imam Husain AS buried? I saw a video from Cairo, Egypt, claiming that the burial place of Imam Husain's head is located there. Is this true?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

Not true.

The sacred head of Imam Husain (AS) is buried in Karbala with his sacred body by Imam Zainul Abideen (AS) when he returned from Damascus on his way to Madina. The head which is buried in Cairo is the head of Zaid ibn Ali ibn Al-Husain (AS) who is a grand son of imam Husain (AS). Zaid was a great Mo'min who was killed by Umayyad tyrant government in year 122 after Hijra.

Wassalam.
Can you dig up an existing grave in order to bury another dead person or do you need to take permission of the heirs of the existing dead person's grave?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

Even if the heirs allow, it is not permissible to dig an existing grave to bury another dead body if the previous dead body still exists in the grave. If the previous dead body has completely decayed and became soil, then it will be permissible to bury another dead body in the grave which has no remaining. In such case, if the land of the grave was purchased by the heirs, their permission is must to bury another dead body in that empty grave.

'Wassalam.

Wassalam.
Do we get buried in the same dust or earth from which we are created from? So if I am born in Australia, lived in Oman and was buried in Karbala, does this mean I was created from the dust taken from the land of Karbala?
Amina Inloes

There are some narrations indicating that the believer (mu'min) and/or those who have allegiance (wilayah) to Ahl al-Bayt (A) are created from a specific sort of clay, which is sometimes associated with the Euphrates. The faithless (kafir) and/or enemies of Ahl al-Bayt (A) are created from another sort of clay. And most people are of a sort of mix between the two which is why we have diverse temperaments. 

Anyway, if these narrations are correctly transmitted, they seem to be more metaphorical about our natures and not literally relating to what kind of components we are physically constructed from. In fact, given that we human beings primarily gain our physical material from eating, and food is imported and shipped worldwide today, we are often built from the "clay" of many different regions! 

So with that in mind, it is reasonable to say that someone with a strong affinity for Ahl al-Bayt (A) might have some creational link to Karbala metaphorically or metaphysically.

That being said, I am not aware of any text that indicates that we are buried in the same place whose clay we are created from, or which really assigns any significance to the region where we are physically buried. 

In fact that Qur'an tells us that we don't know what land we will be buried in; life is full of surprises and we never know where we will go, nor when we will go. 

Similarly the Qur'an does not assign any particular ethical significance to where we live and just says that Allah's earth is vast and if we are unable to live freely in one area, we should move.