Muslim headstones for graves: what they look like, what they say

Search for Muslim headstones and you find three kinds of page: fatwa sites answering whether a stone is allowed at all, monument companies in Britain showing kerb sets and ogee tablets, and news about markers removed from a cemetery for breaking its rules. None of them tells a family in the United States what a Muslim headstone usually is, what goes on it, and how to get one from the cemetery office to the grave. This article does that, in order.

Do Muslim graves have headstones?

Most do, and the marker is deliberately plain. The tradition records the Prophet ﷺ placing a stone at the head of a companion's grave so that it could be found again, and it also records him forbidding building over graves and raising them high. Read together, those two reports are why a Muslim grave is marked, and why the marker is modest. Our article on what Islamic tradition says about grave markers sets out the narrations and where the schools differ.

Some families choose no stone at all, or only the temporary marker the cemetery places at burial. That is a legitimate choice. Most, in our experience, want something permanent: a grave that children and grandchildren can find in thirty years, and a name that will still be legible when the people who remember the face are gone. The cemetery usually wants a permanent marker too, because its own records depend on being able to locate every plot.

What a Muslim headstone looks like

There is no single Islamic style, but a Muslim section in an American cemetery is easy to recognise. A few things recur.

The stone is low. Flat markers set level with the grass, and bevel markers that rise a few inches at the back, are the most common choice. Many Islamic cemeteries, and most Muslim sections inside mixed-faith cemeteries, permit only these two types. Some allow slant markers or a modest upright tablet with a height cap. The four types, with the sizes fabricators treat as standard, are described in our guide to flat, bevel, slant and upright markers.

The shape is simple. A rectangle, or a tablet with a gently arched or pointed top, is typical. The ogee top that British Muslim memorials often use is one version of this, and American fabricators cut it alongside serpentine and gothic profiles. Elaborate carving, columns and statuary are rare, both because the tradition discourages them and because the cemetery's rules usually do.

The ornament is calligraphy, not pictures. Portraits are uncommon and many Islamic cemeteries disallow them. In their place, families use Arabic calligraphy, a geometric border, or a botanical motif such as a vine or a tulip. A crescent and star appears on some stones, though it is a cultural symbol rather than a religious requirement.

The rows face the qibla. Muslim graves are dug so that the deceased lies on the right side facing Mecca. In a Muslim section, that means the rows often run at an angle to the rest of the cemetery, and the headstone stands at the head end of the grave, which may not be the end you expect.

Kerbs are rare in the United States. The kerb set and slab seen on many British Muslim graves, a stone border enclosing the plot, is often not permitted in American lawn cemeteries, which keep the ground open so it can be mown. If you have a kerb set in mind, ask the cemetery before you design one.

What is written on a Muslim headstone

The inscription is where a Muslim headstone differs most from its neighbours. The usual elements, from the top of the face down:

1. A short Arabic phrase. The most common is Surah al-Baqarah 2:156, إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ, Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn, "Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we return." Some families open with the basmala instead.
2. The name, often preceded by المرحوم (al-marḥūm) for a man or المرحومة (al-marḥūmah) for a woman, "the one shown mercy". Many stones give the name in English and again in Arabic or Urdu script.
3. The dates, frequently in both the Gregorian and the Hijri calendar. Converting them correctly, and deciding which calendar goes first, is covered in our article on Hijri and Gregorian dates on a headstone.
4. A supplication, such as اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لَهُ وَارْحَمْهُ, Allāhumma ghfir lahu wa-rḥamhu, "O Allah, forgive him and have mercy on him", with the feminine form for a woman.
5. A line in the family's language: an Urdu or Farsi epitaph, or a plain English one such as "Beloved mother and grandmother".

The full set of phrases, with the Arabic, a transliteration and a translation, is collected in the words families place on Muslim headstones. How to set Arabic, Urdu and Farsi so they are shaped and read correctly is in getting Arabic, Urdu and Farsi inscriptions right.

One honest caution. Scholars differ on how much writing a grave should carry. Some Hanafi rulings, for example a published answer from Darul Iftaa Birmingham, hold that the stone exists only so the grave can be recognised, that the smallest stone which does so is best, and that even a short phrase of mercy adds writing the grave does not need; the same answer permits the details that identify the grave, such as the date of death. Other scholars allow a short verse or supplication. Verses of the Qur'an are the most debated, out of concern that a stone will weather or be stepped over. If this matters to your family, settle it with a scholar you trust before the design is drawn, and consider placing any Arabic high on an upright or slanted face rather than on a flat marker underfoot.

Which stone, and which colour

Granite is the stone of nearly every Muslim headstone in the United States: it holds fine Arabic lettering, it weathers without losing legibility, and almost every cemetery accepts it. Grey granite is the plainest and the least expensive. Black granite shows pale lettering sharply and is the usual choice when the family wants the Arabic to read clearly from a distance. Marble whitens and softens with weather, which is why its use is now mostly confined to older sections; the trade-offs are set out in granite or marble.

Where a cemetery requires bronze, a flat bronze plaque on a granite base serves the same purpose, with raised rather than engraved lettering. Arabic can be cast as well as cut, though the fabricator will want the artwork as vector outlines.

What a Muslim headstone costs

A Muslim headstone costs what any headstone of the same size and stone costs. Published price guides in the United States most often put a flat granite marker, engraved, between roughly $300 and $1,500, and a complete installed single headstone between roughly $1,000 and $3,000, with custom uprights above that. The line items that move the quote, and the ones families forget, are in what a headstone costs.

Two things specific to Muslim stones affect the price. Fabricators usually include a set number of characters and charge per letter beyond it, so a name and epitaph given in two scripts, with dates in two calendars, adds up. And a fabricator who does not read Arabic relies on the family to check the proof, and a mistake found after cutting is expensive to put right. Arriving with the inscription as finished, checked artwork avoids both.

What the cemetery will ask for

Before any stone is cut, the cemetery needs to approve it. The office will ask which marker type you want and whether its section allows it, the width, length and thickness, the stone and colour, and the full inscription, sometimes including a translation of the Arabic. Most cemeteries require a signed application with a dimensioned drawing attached, and most charge a permit or setting fee. Our checklist of cemetery rules for Islamic headstones gives the questions to ask in one phone call.

Timing matters too. Flat and bevel markers can often go in within a few weeks to a couple of months of burial, while an upright needs the ground to settle first; see when to set the headstone.

How to get a Muslim headstone

Searches for "Islamic headstones near me" often end at a general monument company that sets Arabic rarely. The order of work below gets a better stone from any fabricator, and it is the order we follow ourselves.

1. Call the cemetery first. Confirm the marker types, maximum sizes and inscription rules for the specific section. Write them down.
2. Settle the words with the family, and if needed a scholar. Decide on the phrase, the name as it should be spelled in each script, the dates in each calendar, and the gender-specific forms.
3. Design the stone. Choose the marker type and dimensions the cemetery allows, place the inscription, and look at it in three dimensions before anyone cuts anything.
4. Get an itemised quote. Send the same drawing to each fabricator so every quote describes the same stone. What to include is in what to send your fabricator.
5. Submit the cemetery application with the drawing and the inscription, pay the permit, and schedule the setting.

Families in New Jersey and across the continental United States can have Muslim Serenity Stones & Grave Markers carry the whole of it: a consultation on the design, the Islamic considerations and the cemetery's rules; the approvals and permits coordinated with the cemetery; fabrication in granite; and delivery and placement at the grave. Call (609) 610 1855 to talk through your cemetery and your design.

A design to start from

If you are not sure where to begin, start with the simplest complete design. A black or grey granite marker, flat or bevel if the section requires it, with 2:156 across the top in a classical Arabic typeface, the name beneath it, the dates in both calendars, and one English line. That design fits almost every Islamic cemetery's rules. If your scholar discourages verses on a stone, leave out the Arabic line and keep the rest.

Open the studio and describe it in a sentence. The design chat places the Arabic, the name and the dates on a stone of the dimensions you give it, with the script shaped correctly, and you can move every line until it reads the way the family hears it. The dimensioned PDF it exports is the drawing the cemetery and the fabricator both ask for.