What happens to the soul of a person who was cremated?

Question

I have read a couple of threads regarding this topic but none answered my questions. After a person dies and is buried, the question and answer trial happen. If a person was a bad person, they will get punished in the grave. If the person was a good person, they wouldn't.

What happens to the soul of a person, Muslim or non-Muslim, that is cremated?

They cannot be buried. Will they also face a trial? Will they also be punished or questioned? How will they be punished if they don't have a grave or a body? I'm just so confused and honestly, wonder what happens to their soul. I would love to hear your opinions with some text or proof from the Quran.

Answer 1

Regardless of how a person's remains are buried (or not buried), they will be judged and given their punishment or reward. For example, the man in this hadith:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "There was a man amongst the people who had suspicion as to the righteousness of his deeds. Therefore he said to his family, 'If I die, take me and burn my corpse and throw my ashes into the sea on a hot (or windy) day.' They did so, but Allah, collected his particles and asked (him), What made you do what you did?' He replied, 'The only thing that made me do it, was that I was afraid of You.' So Allah forgave him." (Sahih Bukhari)

So, whatever happens to a person's corpse, Allah will gather it back together:

Does man think that We shall not put together his bones? No but indeed, We are able to proportion [even] his fingertips! (75:3-4)

Does man suppose that he would be left alone [after death] to futility? Was he not [once] a drop of emitted semen? Then he became a clinging mass; then He created [him] and proportioned [him], and made of him the two sexes, the male and the female. Is not such a one able to revive the dead? (75:36-40)

Basically, Allah can and will revive all the dead to be judged. The punishment of the grave is harder to say about, and I don't think we can find (and nor do we need) a definitive answer about it. But, the Day of Judgement we know is guaranteed for everyone.

Answer 2

The very verse that Sunni scholars quote as evidence for Barzakh (Life in Grave) talks about the people of Pharaoh:

The Fire, they are exposed to it morning and evening. And the Day the Hour appears [it will be said], "Make the people of Pharaoh enter the severest punishment.

_{Surah Ghafir, 46}

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This Ayah contains one of the major proofs used by the Ahlus-Sunnah to prove that there will be torment in the grave during the period of Al-Barzakh...

_{Tafsir Ibn Kathir}

It is mentioned in the Qur'an that Pharaoh and his soldiers were drowned:

And remember We divided the sea for you and saved you and drowned Pharaoh's people within your very sight.

_{Surah Al-Baqara, 50}

Yet, Allah(SWT) made no exception with the people of Pharaoh entering Barzakh (if it is agreed that the Ayah indeed talks about Barzakh) and getting punished therein. So it is clear that even if the corpse of a person is not buried, he will still enter Barzakh (if Allah(SWT) wills).

And Allah(SWT) knows best.

Answer 3

The punishment of the grave notion can be found in some Ahadith but not in any mutawatir Hadith or the Quran. The Quran informs us that at the time of death the angels will cause us to die.. There is no mention that our soul (Ruh) will be taken away. We now very little about the soul. In Quran 39:42 it says that God will take our Nafs not the angel. But it does say that the angel will beat the faces and backs of the Kufar (Quran 8::50 and 47:27) as a taste of the punishment to come at the time of death. Not when we are already dead. Furthermore God in the Quran 23:113 informs us that on the Day of judgment it will seem that we were dead for a day or only a part of it. How much punishment can be administered in such a short time?

So to answer your question, it doesn't matter how we die or be killed, nothing different happens to the soul of a person who is cremated. We will all be resurrected and face the Judgment Day.

Note:There is a distinction between dying and be killed, Quran 3:158.