Body transfer: dying away from home

Carrying the body to another city before burial: the encyclopedia records four school attitudes, from absolute permission to firm prohibition.

The principle: burying without delay where one dies

The basis is the Uhud hadith: « we were carrying the slain to bury them when the Prophet's caller came saying he ordered them buried where they had fallen, and we returned them » (reported by Abu Dawud, at-Tirmidhi and an-Nasa'i, a hasan sahih hadith). On this basis an-Nawawi rules among the Shafi'is: carrying the dead from one town to another before burial is forbidden; al-Shafi'i disliked such carrying save toward Mecca, Medina or Jerusalem, for the merit of the place. The Qadi Husayn, ad-Darimi and al-Mutawalli forbid it even by testament, the delay and exposure of the body justifying the refusal.

Among the Hanafis

Some permit carrying over any distance, others limit it to less than a journey's distance. As-Sarakhsi discourages it beyond one or two miles, a town's cemeteries sometimes reaching that figure.

Among the Hanbalis

Carrying to a distant place is admitted for a sound purpose: a noble spot, the neighborhood of a righteous person, safety for the body's preservation; the support is the Muwatta's report: Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas and Sa'id ibn Zayd died at al-Aqiq and were carried to Medina to be buried there.

The ancient report's case

The carrying of Jacob and Joseph from Egypt to Palestine, cited in favor of transfer, is set aside by the encyclopedia: it is the Law of earlier peoples, whose conditions are not ours.

Practical note

Between the local-burial principle and the schools' exceptions, the practical rule remains: haste, proximity, preservation of the body.