T

he cemetery business never dies; and now it is burgeoning with the targeting of middle-class urban Muslims, despite a ban from the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) against the trading of burial plots.

Firdaus Memorial Park manager Asep Irawan fully supports the MUI edict, or fatwa, No. 9/2014 on land sales and purchases for cemeteries and luxury graves.

'Firdaus Memorial Park was built from alms collected from affluent members of the Muslim community; not from businesses,' said Asep, who is director of the Wakaf Pro 99-Sinergi Foundation in Bandung, West Java, on Friday.

Earlier, central MUI fatwa commission secretary Asrorun Niam Sholeh said the MUI prohibited land sales and purchases for graves among Muslims.

 'The sale and purchase of land for the benefit of a luxury cemetery business is forbidden or haram in
Islam,' Asrorun said.

According to Asep, the Firdaus Memorial Park, which is located in Ciptagumati, Cikalong Wetan district, West Bandung regency, West Java, was founded due to concerns about the limited land available for graves in urban areas.

The cemetery management, added Asep, had applied the giving of alms in the form of objects; in this case, land for graves.

'With a nominal value of Rp 10 million [US$861], the giver of alms receives benefit in the form of two burial plots with capacity for up to six people,' Asep said.

Each plot can hold three bodies, the first buried at 2 meters deep, the second at 1.6 meters and the third at 1.2 meters.

'Each alms giver obtains two graves, which can be used for up to four relatives. The remaining space is intended for the underprivileged. We conveyed this at the start and it is part of the agreement,' he explained.

He added that, therefore, the memorial park also offered a solution for impoverished Muslims who could not find suitable burial plots.

He cited the case of a patient who died at the Hasan Sadikin General Hospital in Bandung after four days in intensive care, who had no next-of-kin.

'She passed away. After discussing the matter within the local neighborhood unit where she lived, we eventually took care of her funeral and burial. We didn't charge a penny,' Asep said.

The management team at the Firdaus Memorial Park has so far received commitments from 420 alms givers, 210 of whom have paid individual alms of Rp 10 million in full.

'The remaining members of the program are paying their alms in monthly installments of between Rp 250,000 and Rp 1 million,' Asep added.

The cemetery is due to be expanded by up to 21 hectares by 2015, 10 hectares of which will be allocated for burial plots ' with 50 percent earmarked for the underprivileged ' while the remaining land will be cultivated for rice fields, livestock breeding and parks.

One of the contributors to the alms program, Budi Djumhana, 59, said he was happy to participate in the memorial park. 'I can contribute toward building a proper graveyard.'

He said the MUI's fatwa banning burial plot transactions would not cause him to change his mind. 'I see plots in other memorial parks that are also traded. Maybe it's just about supply and demand.'

The luxury cemetery business has been mushrooming in recent years, with the San Diego Hills Memorial Park ' developed by leading property company Lippo Group ' in West Karawang, West Java, one of the most popular resting places for wealthy urbanites, mostly Jakartans.