Burying or crematation???

Question:

Why do Muslims bury dead bodies instead of cremating them, i.e. burning them?

Answer:

1. Components of human body present in the soil
Elements that are present in the human body are present in lesser or greater quantity in the soil. Hence it is more scientific to bury a dead body, as it easily gets decomposed and mixed in the soil.

2. No Pollution
Cremating (burning) the dead body leads to pollution of the atmosphere which is detrimental to health and harmful for the environment. There is no such pollution caused by burying a dead body.

3. Surrounding land becomes fertile
To cremate a dead body several trees have to be chopped, which reduces the greenery and harms the environment and the ecology. When dead bodies are buried, besides the trees being saved, the surrounding land becomes fertile and it improves the environment.

4. Economical
It is expensive to cremate a dead body when tons of wood have to be burned. Annually there is a loss of crores of rupees, only because dead bodies are cremated in India. Burying dead bodies is very cheap. It hardly costs any money.

5. Same land can be utilised for burying another body
The wood used for cremating a dead body cannot be reutilised for cremating another dead body since it gets converted to ashes. The land used for burying a dead body can be reutilised for burying another body after a few years since the human body gets decomposed and mixed in the soil.

Burying of the body, at least in Europe does not allow the mixing and decomposing into the soil - to safegaurd the environment / specially the ground water. Nowadays the caskets are made airtight and leak proof so as not to allow any leakage or contamination of the soil (thats why these caskets are very expensive) - if one compares the cost of these caskets then cremation would come out to be cheaper . Also, even if the same place can be used for burial again, but the earlier body is not just thrown away but occupies space at some other distant spot where rich person would not like to get buried. As for the cremation, I know in most of the cities there are provision of electrical cremation which allows saving of environment and trees.
I feel the best way of disposing of dead bodies is in Parsis who neither bury or cremate the dead.