How Is The Deceased Enshrouded? Can The Deceased Be Buried With Its Clothes On Without Being Enshrouded?
How is the deceased enshrouded? Can the deceased be buried with its clothes on without being enshrouded?
Enshrouding (takfin) means covering the corpse with a cover prepared in due form after the corpse is washed. Enshrouding a corpse is fardh al-kifayah upon Muslims. It is one of the last two duties to be fulfilled by living believers towards the deceased Muslim along with funeral prayer. In this respect, the Prophet (saw) said, “When one of you undertake the duty of shrouding his brother, he should do it well.” (Muslim, Jana’iz, 1,2).
Enshrouding is done with three pieces of cover for men: qamis (shirt), izar (wraparound), and lifafa (outer sheet); and with five pieces for women by adding a headscarf and a cover of chest to these.
In the event that there is not enough shroud for enshrouding, two pieces, i.e. izar and lifafa, are used for men and three pieces, i.e. izar, lifafa, and a headscarf, are used for women. If these are not available either, just one piece of cloth that will cover the whole of the corpse’s body is sufficient (Muslim, Jana’iz, 44). In this case, there is no difference between enshrouding of men and women.
Qamis (shirt), which is one of the pieces of shroud, covers the corpse from neck to feet and izar, which is another piece of shroud, covers it from head to feet. Lifafa, on the other hand, is the piece of sheet that covers it from head to feet and is the outer piece of shroud. It is a bit longer than others to be tied above feet and head.
It is more virtuous that the shroud is made of a white cotton cloth. The Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, “Enshroud your deceased people with white shroud.” (Ibn Majah, Jana’iz, 12).
According to Islam, a deceased person cannot buried with the clothes on him/her without being enshrouded. However, those who are martyred while fighting in the way of Allah are excluded from this rule. Those who are deemed martyrs both in the world and in the Hereafter are not enshrouded, they are buried with their bloody clothes after their funeral prayers are established, because their shroud are their clothes.
Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWA
