Can a Muslim grave have a headstone?

In more detail

• A stone to know the grave by

  When ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn was buried, the Prophet ﷺ carried a stone himself, placed it at his head and said: I mark my brother’s grave with it, and I shall bury beside him those of my family who die.

  Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3206 (ḥasan, al-Albānī)

• Keep it simple

  The Prophet ﷺ forbade plastering graves, sitting on them and building over them. In other reports, writing on them is named as well.

  Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 970a · Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1052 (ṣaḥīḥ, Darussalam; al-Tirmidhī: ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ) · Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3226 (ṣaḥīḥ, al-Albānī)

• Marking the grave

  The Shāfiʿī books recommend a marker at the head. The Mālikī book allows a stone or a piece of wood on the grave, without engraving. The Ḥanbalī book: no harm in marking a grave with a stone or a piece of wood, so that it is known.

  Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:296–298 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr (Mālikī), 1:425 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 2:376

• Writing on it, where the schools differ

  Ḥanafī: allowed if needed, so the grave is not lost or disrespected, and otherwise disliked; writing Qurʾān, poetry or praise on it is disliked. Mālikī: engraving the name or the date is disliked, and forbidden if done for show. Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī: writing on it is disliked, the name or anything else.

  Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:237–238 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr (Mālikī), 1:425 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:296–298 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 2:378–379

• Building over it

  Disliked in all four schools; the Ḥanafī text forbids it for decoration. In land set aside for public burial, the Mālikī and Shāfiʿī texts forbid it, and the Mālikī gloss allows only a small structure to mark the grave.

  Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:237–238 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:424–425 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:296–298 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 2:378–379