Burial at Sea in Accordance with American Law!

Religious scholars say that it is not permissible to bury the leader of al-Qaida by throwing his body into the sea, as the White House has done, as long as it can be buried under the soil in accordance with the provisions of [Sharia] law. Sharia does not allow [burial at sea] except in extreme cases, death near the Dead Sea and the fear of a rotting corpse [in relation] to the length of the trip. In such a case, only washing [of the body] and prayer for [the deceased], and then throwing his body into the sea [is allowed]. Young people on the Internet are mocking the American statement about proper burial, considering this burial as in accordance with the law of America, not Islamic law.

Dr. Assam Asshar, a member of the conference of Muslim clerics, said to al-Wafd that burial at sea is only permissible if burial on land is impossible. In the case of bin Laden, there does not seem that there is a legitimate excuse, but there is the American political goal to hide his body, to promote the mockery of Muslims when the claim that burial at sea was according to Sharia, and describing the burial as in accordance with both American and Islamic law.

Dr. Asshar describes what was said about the burial of bin Laden at sea as a U.S. violation of the sanctity of the dead, and a violation of the sanctity of death and the right of the deceased to a burial in a grave, according to law, stressing that there is no justification for burial at sea unless it was in a compound, for example, a remote beach, or fears that the body would decay. It is better to be buried on land.

The announcement by the White House of bin Laden’s burial at sea and President Obama’s speech a few hours afterwards angered many Muslims on Islamic Internet forums, reasoning that although they disagreed with bin Laden’s ideology, a burial corresponding to Sharia was necessary, and there is desolate, remote ground in Pakistan and Afghanistan in which he could have been buried, in accordance with Sharia, unlike in the sea.

In turn, said Dr. Abdel Muti Bayoumi, a member of al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy, it is not permissible to bury bin Laden in the sea because there is no need for it.

Bayoumi added in a comment to AKI, the Italian news agency: “Sharia allows for burial at sea only when it is necessary, when burial on land is impossible, and he called on America to respect the symbols of Islam, saying that concern for bin Laden’s burial was as natural as any Muslim respect for Islamic rituals.

Also, it is not permitted under Sharia to bury a corpse in steel or under the ground without the burial having been performed in an Islamic manner, and when a body is buried at sea, because of lack of access to land or fears of decay prior to arrival, it is important to have a protective shroud to preserve the body from marine animals.

He added that the sanctity of the dead and missing are preserved as long as a legitimate effort is made, but in this case he considers that modern methods would’ve enabled the body to reach a more appropriate place for burial.

The Islamic religious scholars are in agreement that burial at sea would only be permissible if it were not possible to reach the shore, and in this situation, the body must be weighted with stone or metal and not put in a coffin as the Americans may have done. However, some said that this is not necessary in the case of death on the hajj.*

*Editor’s note: Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca made by pious Muslims; one of the five pillars.