Moslem Burial Customs

The Wady el Nil (replying to an article contributed by Dr. Abdul Aziz Nazmy Bey to the Ahram suggesting that Moslems should follow the example of non-Moslem communities in conveying their dead to the last resting place on carriages instead of employing men to bear the coffin on their shoulders): This idea deserves to be respected, but as the matter is important from the religious stand- point, I went this morning to the headquarters of the Grand Mufti of Egypt in Cairo and asked for his opinion concerning it. In reply to my question, the Grand Mufti declared that the proposal of Dr. Nazmy Bey was quite against the rules of the Sunnah, and did not approve of it at all. There is not the least doubt that the sugges- tion is harmful, and no man will allow himself to support it after hearing the fatwa of the Grand Mufti. . . . Dr. Nazmy Bey's idea is not unlike the proposal made, about twenty years ago, by Dr. Saleh Subhi in a book written by him in French, to the effect that the Moslem community throughout the world should arrange to visit the Holy Shrines in two divisions in turn, the inhabitants of the northern part of the globe making the pilgrimage one year, and those of the southern part in the following year.