Commonly Asked Questions About Our Funeral Services
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About 5 Pillars Farm Cemetery
5 Pillars Cemetery (5 Pillars Cemetery) is the first and the oldest cemetery for Muslims in the San Francisco-Bay Area.
Efforts to search for land and establish a Muslim-owned cemetery started around the year 1994–1995 due to following reasons:
- Hayward cemetery’s portion for Muslims was getting full.
- Its cost was getting too steep for an average Muslim family.
- In addition to the grief of losing their loved ones, they have to bear the stress of enormous financial burden.
We looked at several locations including Sunol, Grant Line road, Livermore, and other areas. We finally chose the Livermore site and purchase the land in 1996 because of its easy access to the Highways.
Getting approval for a Use Permit for the Cemetery was a tough process.
Finally, after satisfying the various conditions of Federal & State Regulating Agencies, a Conditional Use Permit was issued on December 18, 1996 by the Alameda County Planning Department for a 5-acre cemetery at 1761 Laughlin Road, Livermore, CA 94551.
Since no one has any experience at running a cemetery, the original plan the North side of the cemetery proved not to be very practical.
So a new plan was implemented on the South Side of the cemetery:
- Not selling the gravesite in advance, it is sold as the need arises.
- By hiring Gravesite Engineering Companies who will build Veterans Cemeteries.
- By designing walking spaces for easy access to the graves.
- By implementing the policies & procedures which clarifying what is allowed and what are the restrictions. (See rules & Regulations)
Alhamdulillah, Now the cemetery is uniform, neater, and more potential.
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Frequently Asked Questions Click your question to see the answer
We would like to take this opportunity to respond to several questions asked by the family members of the deceased and the visitors.
According to the Resolution Number Z-8621 of the conditional Use Permit’s condition #2, the following is stated:
“There shall be no use of Herbicides, Rodenticides, Pesticides, Chemical Harmful Chemical on the property.”
We are obligated to abide by this strict condition for the use of the land and therefore unable to install any lawn at the cemetery.
This restriction is placed because of the biological resources of the property and Lake therein. There are endangered, threatened, or rare species and their habitats (including but not limited to plants, fish, insects, animals, and birds). Wetland habitats include the habitats of San Joaquin kit Fox and California Tiger Salamander, etc. Any use of chemicals and fertilizers will be harmful to these species. These species are protected by the Federal and State governments.
In the beginning, we allowed this because of inexperience; however, now, we realized that this practice creates problems such as ENCROACHMENT on other graves and difficulty of movement and maintenance.
We have restricted this practice on the advice of the religious scholars of the Bay Area Masajid. (2) We have standardized a design with only the Name, Date of Birth, and Date of the Death of the deceased, and the Grave number.
This is the natural habitat of the animals; we are occupying their space, so it is not possible to control their presence—first because of the nature and secondly due to restriction imposed by Conditional Use Permit. (see above)
We have been trying to get a water connection through the City of Livermore for a long time without success due to the city’s policy restricting out of area water connection, the cemetery is in Alameda County. We have to truck the water through private carriers which is very expensive but we do always have reasonable water available.