The Funeral Prayer When the Bodies of Muslims and Non-Muslims Are Mixed Together

Question

In a factory, Hindus and Muslims all work together. For some reason a fire broke out in the factory, and the Hindu and Muslim workers were burned by the fire in such a way that identifying them is difficult. What is now the ruling of the Shari‘a concerning preparing them for burial and shrouding them (tajhiz wa takfin), when identification is difficult?

Answer

The distinguishing signs are circumcision, removal of the hair below the navel, and the like. If these signs too are lost and there is no way of telling them apart, then it should be looked into how many people in total were working at that place, what the number of Muslims among them was, and how many non-Muslims there were.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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