PAKISTAN Air has reduced the cost of returning home the bodies of the five people who died as a result of last week's tragic house fire on Woodlark Place.
Instead of the $60,000 it was going to cost, the price has been reduced to $26,000.
As the airline charges by weight, it might be even cheaper to cremate the bodies and send back the ashes, but that's not an option for Hamid Farooq, an observant Muslim and the grieving sole survivor of his family here. Islam forbids cremation.
According to the Islamic faith, dead bodies are to be washed, wrapped in a white shroud and buried as quickly as possible.
Cremation is not permitted, as it is considered dishonourable to the dead and because of the Muslim belief that bodies will be resurrected on the day of judgment.
Says Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto: "In Islam, funeral rites and practices have been prescribed by the divine law, in accordance with the dictates of Allah.
"According to this law... burying the dead has been the prescribed method of conveying the deceased to their graves.
"We have no mention anywhere that cremation was acceptable in any of the previous dispensations from Allah."
In keeping with the spirit of the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, and in accordance with Muslim scholars, "it is necessary for us to treat the human body with the utmost of respect, not only when a person is alive, but also when dead," he said.
"Incinerating the corpse... is considered sacrilege and abhorrent and, therefore, forbidden according to Islam."
SOURCE: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cremation-unacceptable-scholar-says-138310064.html
As the airline charges by weight, it might be even cheaper to cremate the bodies and send back the ashes, but that's not an option for Hamid Farooq, an observant Muslim and the grieving sole survivor of his family here. Islam forbids cremation.
According to the Islamic faith, dead bodies are to be washed, wrapped in a white shroud and buried as quickly as possible.
Cremation is not permitted, as it is considered dishonourable to the dead and because of the Muslim belief that bodies will be resurrected on the day of judgment.
Says Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto: "In Islam, funeral rites and practices have been prescribed by the divine law, in accordance with the dictates of Allah.
"According to this law... burying the dead has been the prescribed method of conveying the deceased to their graves.
"We have no mention anywhere that cremation was acceptable in any of the previous dispensations from Allah."
In keeping with the spirit of the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, and in accordance with Muslim scholars, "it is necessary for us to treat the human body with the utmost of respect, not only when a person is alive, but also when dead," he said.
"Incinerating the corpse... is considered sacrilege and abhorrent and, therefore, forbidden according to Islam."
SOURCE: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cremation-unacceptable-scholar-says-138310064.html
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