Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states: “Shrouding and burying the deceased person is the most appropriate and religiously sanctioned method of conveying the corpse in Islam. Cremation is not sanctioned in Islam. Therefore, if the choice was the heirs, they should not be doing it either to their dead relative or anyone else.
However, if the deceased is a non-Muslim and he/she has left a will to that effect, and the heirs have no choice but to carry out his/her will, they should follow what is required by his/her will. But do so without much fanfare or publicity. If the deceased did not leave a will and he/she is a Christian or Jew then the heirs should make the arrangements to bury him/her in accordance with the rules of his/her chosen religion. In such cases, it is recommended that the rites are supervised and conducted by his/her fellow religionists themselves, and the heirs only participate in the ceremony itself.