Short answer
No, not without need. Embalming drains the blood and injects chemicals, which harms the dignity of the body and is not needed for a quick burial. If the law requires it, for example to fly a body to another country, it becomes a necessity and the family is not sinful.
Embalming is not permissible without necessity, because it involves cutting and treating the body without benefit to the dead. The sunnah is hunut, a light scent such as camphor applied after washing. Where embalming is legally compulsory, it is allowed only to the extent required.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
Modern embalming involves cutting into blood vessels, draining the blood and filling the body with preserving chemicals. Islam asks for the opposite: wash the body gently, shroud it and bury it quickly so it returns to the earth. The honour of the body after death is the main reason scholars do not allow embalming by choice.
What the sunnah gives instead. After the washing, a scent called hunut (often camphor or musk) is put on the body, especially on the forehead, nose, hands, knees and feet, the places of sujud. This is all the preparation the dead need.
When it may be unavoidable:
- Some airlines and countries require embalming to transport a body internationally.
- A long delay forced by an inquest may lead a funeral home to insist on it.
In such cases it is a necessity and there is no sin on the family. Ask first whether refrigeration or a sealed coffin is accepted instead, as it often is.
Funeral homes. In most places embalming is not required by law when burial is quick, but some funeral homes offer it as a default. Tell them clearly that the family does not want it. Using a Muslim funeral service avoids this problem.
If you are deciding whether to send a body abroad, the need to embalm is one reason many scholars advise burying where the person died. See sending a body home for burial.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Israa 17:70
۞ وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِىٓ ءَادَمَ وَحَمَلْنَٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْبَرِّ وَٱلْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَٰهُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ وَفَضَّلْنَٰهُمْ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرٍۢ مِّمَّنْ خَلَقْنَا تَفْضِيلًۭا ﴿٧٠﴾
And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things and preferred them over much of what We have created, with [definite] preference.
The body's honour is kept after death.
Sunan Abi Dawud 3207
Graded sahih... كسر عظم الميت ككسره حيا ...
"Breaking the bone of a dead person is like breaking it while alive."
Invasive treatment of the dead body needs a real necessity.
Sahih al-Bukhari 1265
Sahih... اغسلوه بماء وسدر وكفنوه في ثوبين ولا تحنطوه ولا تخمروا رأسه ...
"Wash him with water and lotus leaves, shroud him in two cloths, and do not apply hunut or cover his head."
This was said of a man who died in ihram, which shows hunut is normally applied to the dead.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Salah, Bab al-Jana'iz. Applying hunut after the washing.
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Salah, Bab Salat al-Janazah. The sanctity of the dead body and what may be done to it.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.