Rules Concerning Graveyards: Ruling on Using Adjacent Land That May Have Been a Former Cemetery

Practical Laws of Islam as per the teachings of Imam Khamenei

Rules Concerning Graveyards: Ruling on Using Adjacent Land That May Have Been a Former Cemetery

English:

Question #2094:

There is a plot of land that is adjacent to an existing cemetery. There seems to be no sign of any graves in the said land. However, at some stage in the past, it might have been a cemetery. Is it permissible to have disposal over this land by building a facility for social services?

Answer #2094:

If the land is part of the public cemetery that is held in trust for the purpose of burying the dead, or is considered, in the common view, the precinct of the cemetery, it should be treated in the same way the cemetery is. It is, therefore, not permissible to hold actual control of it.

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