Arbor’s Muslim Gardens: Places of Peace for Families

We continue our series on Arbor’s diverse cemeteries with a look at our Muslim Gardens. Arbor’s staff have been serving Muslim communities across Canada for many years now, and we provide unique services and final places of rest.

Brampton Memorial Gardens, in Brampton, Ontario, is home to Arbor’s largest Muslim community. This cemetery currently offers two gardens dedicated to Muslim families. One is a large garden serving a variety of mosques in the region. It was first designed in collaboration with the Islamic Society of Peel, which approached Brampton’s staff with an interest in providing community cemetery grounds to congregants. We are honoured that over the years this garden has become a comforting place for other medium-sized mosques as well. These mosques are very diverse, which means the garden unites families of different cultures and traditions. We believe it resonates with so many because of our personalized approach to each memorial.

Brampton’s second garden is dedicated to serving the Ahmadiyya community of Brampton. We are also designing a third Muslim garden at Brampton which will have monuments flush with the ground to create a cohesive green space.

Each of these gardens has consistent characteristics that you will see in Arbor’s Muslim Gardens across Canada. Most importantly, each burial space faces Mecca. There is also very organic greenery and a sense of simplicity in each garden. 

We believe the growing demand for our Muslim gardens reflects our strong relationship with the Muslim families we serve.

In addition to traditional, upright monuments, many of Arbor’s Muslim families prefer either flush or raised monuments for their final place of rest. For example, Brampton’s multi-mosque garden is split into two sections to suit these different monument styles. For example, your family may prefer granite markers that are laid flush with the earth and joined to nature. On the other hand, you may like a raised monument which rises out of the ground so that it is easier to find. 

There are many other customizations available in Arbor´s Muslim gardens across Canada. A popular way to personalize a memorial is with meaningful inscriptions. Many families choose to have a phrase from the Qur’an inscribed on their burial monument. Other families come from a tradition where they do not place Qu´ran passages on the ground and so opt for symbols, alternate inscriptions, or no additional decorations at all. These, and so many other choices, are yours to make. We are here to support and inform you every step of the way.

Regardless of which mosque or tradition a family belongs to, Arbor cemeteries across Canada continue to build strong and supportive relationships in each one. We recognize that humility and family are among the most consistent values between Muslim traditions. We often invite families to visit their loved one’s place of rest, particularly on holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Eid. For example, at Brampton, families visit at the end of Eid every year. Everyone gathers together and pays respect to loved ones passed.

Arbor Memorial offers services that are valued by many Muslim families. If you would like to learn more about pre-planning at Arbor Memorial and the support we provide to families of any heritage or faith, please contact us today. You can find your nearest Arbor location by visiting our Location Finder.