A question families ask
Can a Muslim be buried at sea?
Only when someone dies at sea and land cannot be reached before the body changes. Then the four schools say to wash, shroud and pray over them, and lower them into the sea. If land can be reached in time, they are carried there and buried in the ground; ask your imam.
In more detail
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When it is allowed
The books give this ruling for someone who dies on a ship far from land. Ḥanafī: if land is not near. Mālikī: if land is not expected before the body changes; otherwise burial must wait for land. Shāfiʿī: if they are near the coast and can reach it, they must take the body ashore and bury it. Ḥanbalī: if they hope to find a place to bury, they wait a day or two, as long as they do not fear the body will spoil.
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār, with al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 2:233 and 2:235 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:429 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:285–286 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:373
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Washed, shrouded and prayed over
In every school the body is washed, shrouded and prayed over first, as on land. The Mālikī text adds: laid facing the qiblah on the right side.
Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār, with al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 2:233 and 2:235 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:429 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:285–286 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:373
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Weighted, or not
Ḥanbalī: weighted with something and lowered into the water, which Ibn Qudāmah prefers because it covers the body. Shāfiʿī: tied between two boards so the sea may carry it to a shore where someone will bury it; if they lower it into the sea instead, al-Shāfiʿī hoped they did no wrong. Mālikī: not weighted.
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:373 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:285–286 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:429
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Abū Ṭalḥah
Al-Nawawī reports, through al-Bayhaqī with a sound chain, that Abū Ṭalḥah died at sea. They found no island for seven days, then buried him on one, and his body had not changed.
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US law
The EPA’s general permit allows burial at sea of a body (not cremated) at least three nautical miles from land, in water at least 600 feet deep (1,800 feet in some areas off Florida and the Gulf coast). The body must sink quickly and permanently, and the EPA must be told within 30 days. Without a casket, the EPA recommends a natural-fibre shroud with added weight.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Burial at Sea (MPRSA general permit, 40 C.F.R. 229.1)
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