Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle

permissible to burn their corpses. It is written in the lexicon
entitled Qâmûs-ul-a’lâm: Disbelievers called Brahmins in India
hurl the corpses of their dead into the river named Ganges. The
corpses are broken into pieces and eaten by crocodiles. Since this
practice causes noxious scents, which in turn spread pestilences
such as cholera, (they have developed a new method:) they are
cremating the corpses in their temples [1]
and throwing the ashes
into the river. ’Abdul ’Aziz Dahlawî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’
says in the interpretation of the Sûra Abasa that Allâhu ta’âlâ
commanded us to bury corpses. Indian disbelievers burn their
dead. If the corpse is burned, the body disappears. The link
between the body and the soul disappears, and the soul no longer
has any relations with the body. When the corpse is buried, the
soul remains connected with the body and the grave into which the
body is put. Thereby it is known where the soul carries on its
communication with the body. The souls of the people who visit a
grave get acquainted with the soul of the deceased person, and
they benefit from each other. The thawâbs for the âyats and
prayers that are recited and the alms that are given reach the soul
easily. In this way it will be easy for the people who are alive to
benefit from the souls of Awliyâ and sâlih (pious) Muslims.” This
topic is expatiated on in the next chapter.
It is permissible to weep for the deceased person. However,
crying loudly will torment the deceased person.
There are savants who say that it is permissible to inscribe
religious statements, principles of îmân, prayers, sûras or to put a
piece of paper or something else with such inscriptions on it on the
deceased person’s head or shroud; but it is not permissible on
account of the possibility that they may be smeared with the
deceased person’s blood or pus. There is no report stating that
such inscriptions were written during the time of our Prophet ‘sall-
Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’. As it is not permissible to inscribe (âyats
of) the Qur’ân al-kerîm or the Names of Allâhu ta’âlâ on bills or
coins, on the mihrâb or walls of a mosque, or on carpets on the
floor, likewise it is certainly not permissible to put them in a grave.
For, it would be more sacrilegious to put them there. Instead of
writing with a pen, it is permissible to imitate the act of writing the
Kalima-i tawhîd and the Basmala with your finger on the deceased
person’s forehead and chest after the washing.
[1] In special buildings called crematoriums, or crematories.
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