I felt I really needed to highlight this issue because I am deeply concerned for my own self. This is the third case I have heard where the  one part of the family were insisting cremating the body and the other  part of the family insisting on a muslim funeral. This debacle seems to be rife, especially in the overseas countries, where some governments or families insisting on cremations. Reasons could be due to the lack of space to get buried or it being very expensive to buy a plot for burial, I am not sure.  I would have never ever thought I would have to worry about how I will be buried. The lesson we need to learn  is inform our children and family properly how we want to be buried and maybe also make a will and stipulate how you want to be buried.

Learn about muslim burial and funeral

According to EWN – Kader Asmal has passed away – Breaking EWN: ANC stalwart and political veteran Kader Asmal has died at the age of 77.

He died in Constantiaberg Medi-Clinic in Cape Town  after having a heart attack and slipping into a coma, eNews reported.

Conflicting views regarding the burial

Ashraf Garda says in his facebook and twitter
According to news reports Kader Asmal will not be buried according to Islamic Rites-He will be cremated instead! Funeral date still unconfirmed!

According to The star –

ANC stalwart Kader Asmal, who passed away yesterday, will, in line with his last wishes, be cremated in a private family ceremony, his family have announced.

According to Ebrahim Moosa on CII news –

The late Kader Asmal had requested a burial according to Islamic rites, but this was denied by his immediate family. This was revealed by the late former minister’s niece, Suraiya Asmal.

In a statement from his family, spokesman Allan Taylor said Asmal, 76, who passed away on Wednesday afternoon, is to be cremated in a private family ceremony and his family has requested that they be given the space to mourn his passing.  However, speaking to Channel Islam’s Global Outlook this afternoon, Suraiya, who said she spoke on behalf of the deceased’s siblings and extended family in KwaZulu Natal, distanced herself from the planned cremation. “We are deeply saddened by this decision which conflicts with Islamic principles. Professor Asmal wanted to be buried according to Islamic dictates and had confided this to us on numerous family occasions.”

The niece said the decision to pursue a cremation came solely from the Professor’s immediate family.

News that Asmal will be cremated has sparked a hot debate in the Muslim community with many senior scholars emphasizing the impermissibility of this method of burial according to the Shariah. Nonethelessfor the Asmal family, Suraiya says, Kader’s greatest legacy will remain his capacity to interact and dedicate time to those closest to him, in spite of his intellectual and political brilliance.

source: CII news

Like all matters like this, we leave it to Allah to be the master of the day of judgement . Allah knows best..

 

Kader Asmals  last political words,

His last reports in the newspaper were last week, when he rejected the Information bill because it was flawed.

According to Pretoria News

But Asmal rejected the bill in its entirety and urged all South Africans to join him in opposition.

Asmal said he had up until now refrained from publicly commenting on the bill, because he felt that the ad hoc committee processing it would have been persuaded by the “weight of opposition of this measure, to take this appalling measure back to the drawing board” and given that the bill proposed such “wide-ranging changes to the present law with the most severe penalties I have known, that the relevant ministers should have felt it necessary either to defend the bill or to place amendments”.

“Since this has not happened, my conscience will not let my silence be misunderstood. I ask all South Africans to join me in rejecting this measure in its entirety,” Asmal said.

The bill, he said, was “so deeply flawed” that tinkering with its preamble or accepting a minor change here or there would not alter its fundamental nature – that it did not pay sufficient attention to the nature of freedom of expression.

He advised the ruling party that there would be “no shame” in withdrawing the bill to “go back to the drawing board” and warned that if it were passed, civil society would “deservedly” ask for the “maximum public support to oppose the bill in other ways”.

He pointed to the decision by the Thabo Mbeki administration to withdraw the Courts Bill, saying it showed “a measure of self-confidence to do the right thing in a right way”.

“This is lacking at present,” said the former senior ANC national executive committee member. “My appeal, as a loyal member of the ANC who played some role in the drafting of this section in the internal debates in the ANC, is to the government to withdraw the bill – and to set up an independent and non-party political committee to draw up legislation that rightly emphasises the right of the state to protect legitimate state secrets, with a narrow ambit as to who will be qualified to do so and the onus on those who purport to demand such a classification.”

“My fear or anxiety is that if the bill is forced through the ad hoc committee, people whose judgment I trust will lose faith in the democratic process,” said Asmal.

The constitution was clear in that Section 19 embraced the right of freedom of the press and other media. It went further by taking into account recent developments in that it guaranteed freedom to receive or share information or ideas, said the former education minister.

It was “unsatisfactory” to expect the Constitutional Court to do the work that Parliament should be doing.

The bill, which imposes minimum prison sentences for being in possession of and publishing classified information, is widely expected to be heading for constitutional challenge. “I feel that the executive has not given sufficient attention to the constitutional provisions and the way that the limitation of this right to freedom of expression is reasonable and justifiable in a democratic society,” said Asmal.

 

 

 

Kader Asmal (born 8 October 1934) is a South African politician. He was a professor of human rights at the University of the Western Cape, chairman of the council of the University of the North and vice-president of the African Association of International Law. He is married to Louise Parkinson and has two sons. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, received a doctorate Honoris Causa from Queen’s University Belfast (1996) and is a laureate of the 2000 Stockholm Water Prize.

In 1990, Asmal returned to South Africa and shortly afterwards was elected to the African National Congress’ National Executive Committee. In 1993, he served as a member of the negotiating team of the African National Congress at the Multiparty Negotiating Forum. In May 1994, he was elected to the National Assembly, and joined the cabinet as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry.

In 1996, the World Wide Fund for Nature-South Africa awarded Asmal their Gold Medal for his conservation work. During his tenure he supported the Global Water Partnership (GWP). As Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry he spearheaded the recognition of the concept of “the environment as a prime water user.”^[1] While serving as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, he also served as the chairman of the World Commission on Dams (1997–2001).

In 1999, after the South African general elections, he became Minister of Education. Among his initiatives as Minister of Education was the launching in 2001 of the South African History Project “to promote and enhance the conditions and status of the learning and teaching of history in the South African schooling system, with the goal of restoring its material position and intellectual purchase in the classroom”.

source: wikipedia

 

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