Saudi tells Muslims not to seek burial in holy cities

It added that the country's top Muslim scholars of the Council of High Ulema agreed that families should not ship the corpses of loved ones to the holy cities for burial, the newspaper said.
"Under shariah (Islamic law) rules, the dead bodies should be buried without any delay before the corpse begins to decompose," the ministry said.
The newspaper quoted Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh as saying there was no basis in Islamic texts like the Koran for people seeking burial in Mecca or Medina.
"It will not reduce the sins of the dead to be buried in Mecca or Medina. Only their good deeds will accompany them to their graves," said the mufti, the country's highest religious authority.
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