Farming on a Graveyard

Question

The landlords here have the graveyards ploughed with oxen and cultivate them; on some graveyards there are graves, and they drive the plough over them. Is this permissible in the Shari‘a? Those whose graveyard it is object that it is their old graveyard; the landlords say that the land is in their name, but the graves were made long ago.

Answer

If the graves are so old that the deceased has completely turned to dust, then ploughing and cultivating that land is all permissible: [ar]وَلَمَّا بَلِيَ الميت وصار تراباً جاز دفن غيره في قبره وزرعه والبناء عليه[/ar] “When the deceased has decayed and turned to dust, it is permissible to bury another in his grave, to sow it and to build upon it” (“al-Bahr”, vol. 2, p. 195).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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