 | Dr. Nabil Seyam is director of the Board of Administration of the Islamic Society of Wichita and Co-Founder of the Annoor Islamic School. He was the recipient of the Leader of the Year in 2002 in Wichita and most recently was the recipient of the Community Servant Award by the University United Methodist Church in 2003. Dr. Seyam was selected for the Community Servant Award because of his active role in peace-building and multiculturalism throughout Kansas. He is an adjunct instructor for Pittsburg State University and Wichita State University. He is married and has six children. He can be reached at (316) 630-9222 , by e-mail at nabil@seyam.org, or visit his website at www.seyam.org |
Religion
2004-07-01 09:14:00
Cremation... is it a moral or spiritual issue
: Is cremation a moral or spiritual issue? Is it now or was it ever considered to be a desecration of the body.
ANSWER: Islam is clear on this issue. The wisdom is that God has forbidden us to use fire on His creation. As for the rest of His orders and prohibitions He doesn't need to explain Himself. As Muslims we believe that the body continues to feel after the soul has left it. The Islamic law recommends for Muslims to wash it gently, not roughly, and to use lukewarm water, neither cold nor hot. Are they sure they will not feel the flames? Islam views cremation as a deviation from the norm. God has shown us from the very first death in the time of Adam that burial as opposed to cremation is the proper and most fitting way to dispose of a body after death. Scholars generally agree that burial is best and all else prohibited except in a case of extreme hardship or emergency which would necessitate something elseGod gave the proper way for us to bury our dead with the example of the Raven. God is all knowing and if cremation (although it was not available to man at the time of Cain) was the proper way for burial, God would have provided that as an example vice burial. Embalming means using some form of preservative on the body. We Muslims do not preserve the body of the dead.
