If a foreign worker dies, how soon should he be buried? Is it appropriate for the employer to delay burial until he receives the consent of the worker's parents or next of kin? Does this not intervene the rule which specifies a time limit for burial?
Let me first of all say that there is no time limit for burial. Islam does not say that a dead person should be buried within a particular number of hours or days after the death has occurred. Having said that, it is well known that it is more appropriate from the Islamic point of view to bury a person as soon as possible after his death. Burial is not to be delayed unnecessarily. When it is feared that the body of a deceased person could begin to decompose, preparation for burial should be started with maximum speed. On the other hand, if there is a valid reason for a delay in burial, then this is acceptable. Such delay may be necessary if a crime is suspected. A coroner may require a postmortem to be carried out in order to determine the cause of death. This will inevitably delay burial, but this is certainly acceptable.
In the case you have mentioned, the employer may have felt that the relatives of the deceased worker may wish to have the body returned to the worker's home country for burial there. From the Islamic point of view, it is undesirable that a person be sent from one country to another for burial. [or, for that matter, from one town in the same country to another town.] Even when a Muslim dies in a non-Muslim area, it is perfectly appropriate for him to be buried there. There is no need for him to be taken away to a Muslim country. The whole earth belongs to Allah and wherever we are buried, He resurrects us on the day of judgment.
• Buying good deeds done by others
If a person is able to transfer the reward of his good deeds to others, would it be also possible for the recipient to buy such good deeds? If so, then rich people would have every chance of buying any amount of reward they need. On the other hand, is it possible to transfer the punishment of a bad deed to another person?
I could not tell from the tone and style of the writer whether he is asking a genuine question with the need to know the answer, or whether he wants only to express his objection to the view that reward may be transferred and the recipient stands to benefit by the work of other people. If it is the latter, then he has certainly aroused my interest by his original method of argument.
If the question is genuine, then the answer is very simple. It is not in the power of anyone to transfer the sin of an action he does to another person. Otherwise, the whole idea of reckoning and being answerable for one's deeds becomes a mere game. People who have a grudge against others would try to get their revenge by doing something and transferring it to those whom they do not like. God then becomes a mere book-keeper recording what people want to do to their fellow-human beings in order to settle their accounts with them. Far be it from God's justice to do any such thing.
Yet people may have a grievance against others, and sometimes the grievances are genuine. There is much injustice in the world and all injustice is an assault by one person on the rights of another. It is often the case that the person who is at the receiving end of injustice has no way of repelling such injustice or protecting his rights, or retrieving what is rightfully his. The answer to that is not by allowing such a victim of injustice to transfer the sin of a bad deed to his oppressor, but to seek God's help in the establishment of justice. God will certainly retrieve the right of everyone of His servants, and He will punish the perpetrator of injustice, no matter what great power they may enjoy in this life.
As for buying the reward for good actions, this is again absurd. Money is not the way to earn reward, except when it is spent for a good purpose.
A person with money will earn more reward when he spends more on charitable purposes. If a rich person opens a school for the children of those who are poor and provides them with free education, or if he gives financial support to an orphanage, then he will certainly earn reward from God. But he cannot employ someone to do some good deeds and transfer them to him. Imagine someone offering an amount of money to a person who fasts or prays on his behalf! That is certainly absurd.
Yet it is possible to do something good and request Allah to credit its reward to someone else. That is a gift we may give to others. The Prophet, peace be upon him, has clearly stated that a woman may do the pilgrimage on behalf of her father who has become too old to withstand the difficulty of the journey. He himself included in his supplications prayers for some people and he named these people on certain occasions. If you give something to charity and pray God to credit it to your deceased mother, then your action shows your belief in God and the day of judgment, and your dutifulness to your mother as well as your wise choice of a good deed to enhance your own and your mother's positions on the day of reckoning.
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