Q2. Does Islam allow the burial of two or more people in the same
grave?
A. This as well is also not allowed. It is haram for the following
reason:
Allah's Apostle (peace be upon him) said: If you were not (to abandon)
the burying of the dead (in the grave), I would have certainly
supplicated Allah that He should make you listen to the torment of the
grave. (Muslim).
In another tradition he said: "You should hasten to bury your dead
ones, for if they are good you will be taking them to goodness, and if
they are bad you will be relieving yourself of their evil". (Muslim)
The above traditions clearly show that there is punishment in the
grave. The second tradition particularly shows that the evil in the
corpse of a bad man could extend to others even if they are alive.
This is more so, if they are buried with him in the same grave. This
is the major reason why non-Muslims are not buried together with
Muslims in the same graveyard, because part of the torment their souls
will be going through could extend to their neigbours.
Therefore it is not allowed to bury more than one corpse in one grave.
But in an emergency situation like, during wars, disasters, where there
are more corpses to bury and the number of Muslims to do the burial are
very few, and if the corpses are left unattended to might start
decomposing, leading to the spread of diseases. In such situations, a
mass burial is allowed, but we should note what the prophet did as
narrated in the following hadith:
"Allah's Apostle used to shroud two martyrs of Uhud in one sheet and
then say, "Which of them knew Qur'an more?" When one of the two was
pointed out, he would put him first in the grave. Then he said, "I will
be a witness for them on the Day of Resurrection…" (Bukhari)
Meaning that if more than one Muslim is to be buried in a grave, we
should seek to know the most religious among them and put him first in
the grave.
