Exhumation

648. It is Haraam to open the grave of a Muslim even if it belongs to a child or an insane person. However, there is no objection in doing so if the dead body has decayed and turned into dust.

649. Digging up or destroying the graves of the descendants of Imams, the martyrs, the Ulama (scholars) and the pious persons is Haraam, even if they are very old.

650. Digging up the grave is not forbidden in the following nine cases, rather it is obligatory in a few cases:

When the dead body has been buried in an usurped land and the owner of the land is not willing to let it remain there.

When the Kafan (shroud) of the dead body or any other thing buried with it had been usurped and the owner of the thing in question is not willing to let it remain in the grave. Similarly, if anything belonging to the heirs has been buried along with the deceased and the heirs are not willing to let it remain in the grave. However, if the dead person had made a will that a certain supplication or the holy Qur'an or a ring be buried along with his dead body, then it is not permissible to exhume to take out such things, except if those things are more than 1/3rd of the estate of deceased and the heirs are not willing to let it remain in the grave.
When opening the grave does not amount to disrespect of the dead person, and it transpires that he was buried without Ghusl or Kafan, or the Ghusl was void, or he was not given Kafan according to religious rules, or was not laid in the grave facing the Qibla.
When it is necessary to inspect the body of the dead person to establish a right.
When the dead body of a Muslim has been buried at a place which is against sanctity, like, when it has been buried in the graveyard of non-Muslim or at a place where people throw out their waste or garbage.
When the grave is opened up for a legal purpose which is more important than exhumation. For example, when it is proposed to take out a living child from the womb of a buried woman.
When it is feared that a wild beast would tear up the corpse or it will be carried away by flood or exhumed by the enemy.
When a part of a deceased is left out and has to be buried with the corpse, as per obligatory precaution, remaining part of the body should be buried in such a way that the corpse buried inside the grave could not be seen.
When the body of the deceased is to be transferred to one of the sacred places, and even in this case exhuming should not result in any desecration and disrespect to the deceased.