The Ritual Of A Muslim Funeral
Muslims, followers of Islamic faith, believe that if you have led a good life and followed the Islamic codes you will go to paradise after you die. The funeral serves as an important function for Muslims as not only does it provide comfort for the living, but it also provides an opportunity to pray to Allah (Islamic god) to send the deceased to paradise and to have mercy on all deceased Muslims. This is important as it offers hope for a good afterlife and brings the community together. An Islamic funeral is a community event.
A ritual is the performance of ceremonial acts with a meaning of tradition or a priestly order. Muslim Funerals are defined as a ritual not only because they match the definition of a Ritual, but they follow Lovat’s 5 step Theory.
Terrence Lovat is an Australian religious educator who created Lovat’s 5-step Theory. Lovat collected data of all rituals in 1995 and proposed that all rituals have a beginning, middle and an end, thus the establishment of the 5-step Theory. The 5 phases in Lovat’s Theory are, the Entry, the Preparation, the Highpoint, the Celebration and the Return.
The Entry of this Ritual is when the family and friends of the deceased are notified, this happens as soon as possible. This is because the Burial is normally within 48 hours of death, for sanitary reasons. Cremation is forbidden within the Muslim culture as Muslims believe that there will be a physical resurrection of the body on judgement day. When the news of the death reaches family, the first thing they should say is the following Quran verse 2:156 ‘inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah and indeed to Him we will return.’
The Preparation of the Burial requires two main steps. The body must be bathed three times with the intent to cleanse the deceased. The people who will wash the body must be trustworthy and an honest adult Muslim preferably of the same Gender. Usually two or three people perform the washing. Then the Shrouding of white cloth called ‘Kafari’ is done to maintain the deceased’s dignity and privacy. The hands are then placed in a prayer position.
Lovat’s Third step is the Highpoint, and for the Muslim Burial the Highpoint would be the Burial of the body. During the burial of the body only the men accompany the body to the gravesite. Muslims do not see death as an end but rather as a transition from one state of existence to another. The Body of the deceased is buried facing the Islamic holy city, ‘Mecca’. They believe in life after death and pray to Allah that the deceased are accepted into paradise with hopes that they will find happiness in the life that is yet to come. This is the salat pray (Ṣalāt al-Janāzah).
It is customary for the community to provide food for the grieving family for the first 3 days. A loss of one person is considered a loss to the family but also the community, hence why people who didn’t even know the deceased will attend the funeral. Loved ones and relatives are to observe a 3 day mourning period where they welcome visitors. They also increase their prayers and devotion to the deceased by telling others all the good things about them. The people left on earth are seen a’s Allahs witnesses and if they talk of the dead as a saint, he will go to paradise, talk badly of the deceased on his death and he will go to hell.
The funeral usually ends within 3 days of the burial. Widows are to mourn for longer, 4 months and 10 days, in accordance with the Qur’an 2:234, during which no contact with men is allowed. The widow is also not allowed to wear decorative clothing or jewellery, or to move from her home in this time.
A Muslim Funeral contains many Symbols but the most common one in a Funeral is the Black and White ram. The Black and White symbolises death and when the ram is killed it symbolises the Death of Death.
