What is the ruling on preparing and burying the deceased?

It is established in Islamic law that the body of a deceased must be buried and covered with soil. This is a fundamental right for every Muslim to protect their human dignity and honor their sanctity; Allah Almighty says, “ From the earth We created you, and into it We will return you, and from it We will extract you another time” (Quran, 20:55), “Have We not made the earth a container of the living and the dead” (Quran, 77:25-26), and “Then Allah sent a crow digging up the earth so that he might show him how he should cover the dead body of his brother” (Quran, 5:31). Imam al-Fakhr al-Razi noted in Mafatih Al-Ghayb, “There is no doubt that the reference is to a return to the grave so that the earth may be the resting place and receptacle for all who die, except those whom Allah has raised to the heavens. Even they may possibly return to it afterward” (22:62).

Scholars unanimously agree that preparing and burying the deceased is a fard kifaya (communal obligation); if it is carried out by some members of the community, the obligation is lifted from the rest, but if it is neglected by all who are aware of the death, they are all are considered sinful. Shaykh al-Islam, Zakariyyah al-Ansari, wrote in Asna Al-Mataleb fi Sharh Rawd Al-Taleb, “Washing the deceased, shrouding them, praying over them, and burying them all constitute fard kifaya based on the consensus related by the original authority” (1:298).

And Allah Almighty knows best.