A question families ask
Can a Muslim be buried in a non-Muslim cemetery?
Families usually bury in a Muslim cemetery, or a Muslim section of a public one, because the schools keep Muslim graves apart. The Shāfiʿī school agrees that a Muslim is not buried in a non-Muslim cemetery, the Mālikī book recommends putting right the burial of a convert in one if no change to the body is feared, and the Ḥanbalī book requires the graves of non-Muslims to be kept distinct from Muslim cemeteries. If there is neither near you, ask your imam.
In more detail
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SchoolShāfiʿī
Al-Nawawī: our companions agree that a Muslim is not buried in a cemetery of unbelievers, nor an unbeliever in a cemetery of Muslims.
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SchoolMālikī
If someone who had become Muslim was buried in the cemetery of the unbelievers, it is recommended to put it right, as long as no change to the body is feared. The same applies if the washing or the prayer was missed.
Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:419
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SchoolḤanbalī
The graves of non-Muslims must be kept distinct from the Muslims’ cemeteries. A non-Muslim woman who dies pregnant with a Muslim child is buried apart from both if that is possible, and otherwise with the Muslims, so that the Muslim child is not buried among non-Muslims.
Al-Buhūtī, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ (Ḥanbalī), 2:146–147 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 2:420
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SchoolḤanafī
Al-Fatḥ, quoted by Ibn ʿĀbidīn: the dead are not buried in the house where they died, but taken to the Muslims’ cemeteries. There is no harm in burying a Muslim where a polytheists’ cemetery once was, once none of its graves remain.
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If the family is not Muslim
The law, not your faith, usually decides who arranges a funeral. Write your wishes down, name an agent or executor, and tell your masjid, so that you can be buried as a Muslim.
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Other questions
Each point gives the sources it rests on. Not a fatwā and not legal advice. · Sources · Something wrong? Tell us