All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon our master the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Islam has honoured the human being in life and in death alike. Among the most visible expressions of that honour after a person passes away are the washing of the body, the shrouding, the burial in a grave, and the offering of the funeral prayer — all of which are acts of reverence for the deceased. Allah the Almighty says {what means}: "And We have certainly honoured the children of Adam." [Al-Isrāʾ/ 70]

It is therefore obligatory that burial be carried out in a manner that neither harms nor demeans the deceased in any way, for the Prophet ﷺ said: "Breaking the bone of a deceased person is like breaking it while he is alive." (Reported by Abū Dāwūd.)

Cremation of a deceased person's body is accordingly forbidden in Islamic law, as it constitutes a form of harm, degradation, and dishonour to the deceased, and results in the complete destruction of the body's form. The jurists have explicitly stated that even in the context of legal retaliation (qiṣāṣ), any method that would disfigure or corrupt the body of the one being executed is impermissible. Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī, may Allah have mercy upon him, stated: "Some of our scholars held that retaliation by means of poison is not permissible, out of care for the preservation of the body — for when poison takes effect it may hasten the body's decomposition, and the body of a deceased person commands obligatory sanctity." [Nihāyat al-Maṭlab, 16/147]

Accordingly, it is forbidden to cremate the body of a deceased person, as doing so constitutes a grave dishonour and a violation of the dignity that Islam has enshrined for every human being in death as in life. Every effort must be made to find a way to bury the deceased in accordance with the teachings of the Islamic sharīʿah — even if that requires transporting the body to another area where proper burial can be arranged. And Allah the Almighty knows best.