#613: Ruling on Cementing or Tiling the Grave

QUESTION

” Salam Alaykum brothers & sisters…Pls is it good Islamically to cement or tile a deceased love one’s grave”

ANSWER

Wa alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.

Alhamdulillāh

Know, may Allāh be merciful to me and to you, that it is not permissible to build anything on a grave above two spans of a hand, and it is obligatory to put down anything that exceeds these spans.

The evidence for this is the Hadīth of ‘Alī – radiyallāhu ‘anhu – in which he told the Tābi’ī Abū Al-Hiyāj Al-Asdī:

“May I send you on an assignment upon which the Messenger of Allāh – salallāhu alayhi wasallam – sent me? Do not spare a statue except that you break it nor a grave that has been heightened unless that you level it.”

This Hadīth is recorded by Imām Muslim in the Sahih.

An-Nawawī – rahimahullāh – said in his Sharh on Sahih Muslim:

“The Sunnah is that the grave is not raised above the earth surface any much. And it is not hipped and embossed. Rather it is raised to the mere span of a hand and then leveled. This is the Madh’hab of Ash-Shāfi’ī and those that agree with him. But Al-Qādī ‘Iyyādh quoted from many of the ‘Ulamā that they preferred that it be hipped. And this is the position of Mālik”

Hāfidh Al-Hakamī – rahimahullāh – said in the Sullam:

بل قد نهى عن ارتفاع القبر ؛
وأن يزاد فيه فوق الشبر

وكل قبر مشرف فقد أمر؛
بأن يُسوى هكذا صح الخبر

“Rather He forbade the raising of graves;
And forbade its raising to above a hand span

And every raised grave, he has commanded
That it be leveled, thus the Report came authentic”

There is therefore no basis for the tiling and cementing of the grave of your beloved and in it is semblance with the misguidance of the People of the Book who spend monies on their dead and erect beautified graves for them.

As for using cement to surround the sides of the not-above-one-hand-span grave as it is customary in some communities, then this is permissible only if there is a legitimate fear of erosion and its likes that may cause the grave to sink, and Allāh knows best.

Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran

11th Shawwal, 1439A.H.

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