Rules Concerning Graveyards: Ruling on Rebuilding Facilities on Demolished Cemetery Land

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Rules Concerning Graveyards: Ruling on Rebuilding Facilities on Demolished Cemetery Land

English:

Question #2083:

A 35-year-old cemetery was demolished by the Council and turned into a public park. During the era of the previous regime, a number of buildings were erected on the land of the cemetery. Is it permissible for the competent authority to rebuild such facilities?

Answer #2083:

It is not permissible to have any one of these in the land: Build any installations, hold actual control of it, or make any change or alteration. That is, if [a] the land is endowed for the purpose of burying the Muslim dead, [b] the building work would entail exhuming the dead bodies or desecrating the graves of the pious, the scholars, or the believers, or [c] the land is a public facility needed to be used by the public. Otherwise, it is permissible in itself.

-Imam Khamenei, Practical Laws of Islam, Importance and Conditions of Rules Concerning Graveyards