Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Visiting the Graveyard, the Funeral Prayer and the Islamic Burial Process
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
as we're approaching as we're approaching the graveyard we're
supposed to read a DUA to when you enter there's a number of versions
of this to our we're going to read one of them right now and then
I'll make I'll mention the other ones later, inshallah the first
one
if you can repeat after me a Salam or Aleikum
yah Yeah. Hello.
Darko, meaning
we're in.
In sha we're in, in sha Allah who become law Hakuna pneus Allah,
Lana Wallach welcome, alive here,
which means peace be upon you as salam, o alaikum. Peace be upon
you, O abode of believers,
we are soon to join you. So this tells you right from here that
this is a point of reflection. We're not going there to do
anything but pray and reflect. So we're soon to join you. We ask for
wellbeing for both us and you. So we don't forget ourselves. We
don't forget our deceased either we say we, and we do this for all
of them, we may have just one deceased individual. Maybe our
father may be buried here or mother may be buried here,
brother, a son or something, just just a single individual. But
we are praying for everybody here, where we're basically approaching
this as though we are we have come to an abode of believers. That's
why the Prophet sallallahu Sallam had this slide as is related to
Allah. So that's the DUA.
Mashallah, the, as you can see here, the gates, it says eternal
guidance. And when you read that, first, it almost seems to say that
these are the eternal God's eternal, eternal means something
which is forever. Clearly the wherever anyway, you may be in
this world, as beautiful as it may be, you're never going to be
eternal. However, what the real name is a total, which is
reflected in the Arabic Atari
Atari legend that is the pathway. So this is clearly a pathway. And
it's given a very optimistic,
very
nice, full of great optimism that this is a path to the gardens. It
is a path to the garden of the eternal guidance, that in sha
Allah, which is
so the word Jana itself is a very important word to understand.
Because the word gender comes from gem noon, which actually refers to
hide something that's its essential meaning. That's why the
word Jinn they're hidden from our site. That's why you can't see
them. That's why they call Jin
Junoon. Julian means insanity. And the reason Juno means insanity
because a person becomes veiled again, from reality. So gender is
the garden. And the reason why it's called Garden though you
have, you know, descriptions of paradise being one brick of gold
and one brick of silver, the mortar being of mosque and all the
other descriptions you have, the general appearance of it is going
to be extremely lush green with potentially mentality and how
below which are beneath beneath which rivers flow. So it's a
beautiful place, which
I see that this is what's been tried to create, he has a point of
optimism that insha Allah if you are buried here, then shut up like
you. Although that's there's no guarantee for that. But it's just
optimism and in Sharia, it's allowed to take good omens, the
prophets of Allah we used to do that when Sohail came in, during
the the with a B treaty. He said, Okay, now the matter is going to
be made easy, because Suhaila has come in. So Haley comes from the
word salad, which means easy. So good. omens are allowed in an
encouraged but bad omens are discouraged. So you don't take bad
omens because they have absolutely no effect on anything Allah does
as he pleases. So this is really beautiful in this regard. And then
if you look around and the lush trees I'm not trying to sell you
this here, just my personal reflection here.
I actually just two days on Wednesday, I got a chance to visit
this huge cemetery. It's one of the biggest in Europe, in fact,
down by walking, it's about 15 minutes from that walking Mosque,
which is the first mosque in Europe outside of Andalusia
outside of Spain. And we went there because there's two really
prominent individuals from from the UK. Well, one was from the UK,
the other one is majority from India. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, the
Quran translator and Mama
You pick fall, they're both buried there. And it's a massive cemetery
with beautiful, beautiful trees, just various different trees,
it's, you can drive in there for, you know, for a whole hour or
something like that it's just really beautiful. So I think it's
nice to take care of our cemeteries not to the level of
obsession, but definitely to make him presentable so that people do
reflect when they come here, it's an easy place to go and visit
because we it's a sunnah to visit graveyards, so that's why I think
it's all within the sunnah to have a welcoming and inviting graveyard
that you go and you reflect on the, so Inshallah, that's a great
thing.
So this is, generally the janazah is done in the local areas they
have, they either do it in the sidewall of a masjid, or in the
masjid, sometimes as well. And if not, then they actually come here
to do it. So when they do it here, what must be avoided in a
graveyard. And the reason I mentioned this is I had to attend
a funeral not so long ago. And I eventually realized, because
initially you don't realize because you're just focused, that
you're actually doing it in the midst of the graves. And that
should be avoided. You shouldn't be facing towards graves when you
do a Janaza prayer. So he'll hamdulillah they found this
perfect spot because there's no Janaza there is no graves in that
direction. So that's why you do it. And the whole reason for that
is we don't want to be seen in any way shape or form. praying towards
the deceased, pray, praying towards anything but ALLAH SubhanA
wa Tada. So that's why we're very sensitive to these things. That's
why we don't pray at sunrise or sunset, or when the sun is up at
noon, to avoid these things. So
generally speaking, whether it's a male or a female deceased, the
Imam will stand
towards the chest and the head side, that side and not directly
in the middle. It's placed in front towards the Qibla. So the
disease will be placed in front. And then after that we stand, the
Imam stands here. And then what we want to try to achieve is you can
have as many rows as possible, but try to have an odd number.
Try to have an odd number. So we we then make an you don't need too
much space because there's no prostration in this prayer.
There's no bowing in this prayer. It's just standing and
photocopiers as you stand so most of you are probably used to the
prayer because you must have joined we will have a quick
inshallah a quick demonstration to see how it's done very quickly in
sha Allah. And there's the most important thing is the two hours
that we must learn.
There's different ways of praying the Janaza prayer in form, it's
nearly the same. What it is, is essentially for the computers for
time saying Allahu Akbar, and then at the end to do a Salam. Now, if
you've been to ombre
if you've been to Makkah, the maca, maca, Rama, Madina
Munawwara, you will have noticed that they only do one Salam and
you may be used to doing two salons. That's a different mother
hubs difference of but again, both valid according to their mother
hubs, we as Hanafis generally do too. So even if the Imam has only
done one as they do in Saudi, you will just carry on do the second
one and finish off that way.
In terms of the four after the first that could be the Shafi is
and possibly the hamburgers as well they recite Surah 330 In the
Hanafi school there is no solitary Fatiha inside the Janaza prayer.
What we do is we read out the praise Subhana Allah Moby hammock,
we read that and
after the second then you do then Imam says Imam does the second
technique. Do we raise our hands in this prayer? Well, after you
start the after you say the first like me, you don't raise the
hands. This is not Eid prayer where you start raising the hands.
Some people think it is that right? Then they start raising
hands so you don't raise hands. You just keep them folded. After
the second one, you do our salawat and Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wasallam, the normal one that you do in solid, and then the Imam
says the tech bit as well we say that after that. We don't say it
aloud. There's some people who like to make a big noise at that
time as well. The Imam says it aloud everybody else says it
silently. And then after that you do the Da da has to be appropriate
the prayer has to be appropriate to who has died. It gets really
confusing in Saudi I say this because a lot of people go for
Omron they're very confused. You should try to understand what
they're saying in Arabic or Salah to me et al um, what means that
this is that means it's no most likely and adult. For the adult
there's only one dua whether it's male or female, this is one dua
for children, there's a different door.
And for children there's a different door, so tiful at furl.
I though those are words for children is a slightly different
door because children are supposed to be in
Listen, they're supposed to be infallible. They're supposed to be
without sin. So generally, the purpose of a Janaza prayer is to
make dua is to actually pray for the minute is to pray for the
disease, when it's a young man, sorry, not a young man, but a
child, you know, not not mature yet, then there is no need to pray
for them. Rather, we pray for ourself in that regard. And we say
that, Oh Allah make this child that has passed away the Quran,
make them a treasure for us, make them a foreigner for us prepare
for us as such. And Shafia Oh, one with Mustafa, an intercessor and
one who's intercession will be accepted. So we're essentially
even remembering our death at this moment as well. In fact, we do
this right from the beginning when somebody dies, what is the dua
that we read?
In La he were in LA he Raji Arun. Now what is that? What does that
mean? Because we're supposed to say that whenever you hear any
strange news, or when there's a loss of anything, you read, you
read in LA, he were in LA, he Roger oni if you ponder over the
meaning, again, the there's a whole point of reflection here,
which is, in early Allah, we are also we also belong to Allah, and
we will also return to him, he's left our diseases left, they've
gone or I've lost something, somebody's had an accident, that's
a loss, but we are also to go. So it's just about reflecting over
the perishable nature of this world, the transient nature of
this life, that it's all going to end. That's the whole purpose of
this. So when we do the dua for young children, then we do the DUA
as a hope that those those are accepted inshallah and there's
benefit to come for us as well. And when it's for adults, it's a
different Allah homophily Hygiena on the youth in our Shahina or
even also here in our kabillion, our record in our own Thana
Allahumma, Anahita, whom enough Halal Islam momento, feta Homina
photographer who Allah Iman, again this is to offer ourselves in the
we're saying, oh, ALLAH forgive, and we the door strangely enough,
isn't a very specific door, Oh ALLAH forgive this mediate this
deceased it's it's actually Oh ALLAH forgive our deceased, our
deceased, not just him, but everybody reserves that
that dua so forgive us, our disease, and also our living ones.
Those who are here and present who are witnessing this Shahina waha
Ebina. And also those who are not here was that Karina were on
Thana, our male and female.
And then it's and then the DA says Oh Allah, those that you will
continue to give life to from among us, then give us life on
Islam, on submission against submission, right, keep us
submitted. And
whoever you give death to from among us, whoever you take, then
give us death on Iman on belief. So we are actually reinforcing our
we are basically asking for each time we go and make this dua, we
actually asking for ourselves as well. And we're asking for others,
because we don't want to be selfish and disregard. Those are
the doors that we do. So generally we have the odd number. And
sometimes somebody might make come this is easy because janazah
prayer can only be done by the it says the Imam does it or the
Willie the closest kin can can do it. Generally you try to get the
most righteous person to the door because that person is making the
DUA the prayer and everybody is basically behind being behind him.
You know, what does an imam do? Imam reads the Fatiha right, which
is it's a discourse with Allah, Al hamdu, lillahi, Rabbil Alameen
Rahmani Raheem, when he finishes that what does everybody say at
the back? mean? Oh Allah except. So that's, that's the way we do
it. So you're trying to get the best person to make this prayer to
God, right when you're standing in front of the deceased to do this.
So The imam leads the prayer. Now once the prayer has been done, you
can't repeat it. Let's just say a few people came late. It's not
like normal prayers where you can do a cover because this is a one
off prayer that can only be done in one instance generally. Right?
And
that is why
if the Imam is about to begin,
and your wudu breaks, your ablution becomes nullified. And
you have to run all the way well actually, this is quite close,
right? But generally speaking, you have to go really far to go and
make a will do and take off your socks and shoes and everything
like that. And if you have fear of missing your Janaza prayer
you
actually allowed to do TM, which is the dry ablution, which
literally takes unfortunate, I think most people probably take
longer than will do, because they probably won't know how to do it
if they've never done it before. But generally, it's just slapping
both, you know, placing both hands on anything natural of the Earth,
right, which basically this tonic works here, right? Sand, whatever
the case is, and then just wiping your face all over as much as you
know, getting your all over, doing that again, and then just
basically
covering your entire arm, both arms. And that's it, it's done. So
you can hear if you've practice, you should all practice it,
because sometimes you may need to use it. So that's what you need to
do. And then you join in the janazah. And you carry on, the
only time you would have been considered to have missed the
Janaza prayer is if the Imam does the fourth Allahu Akbar,
and you catch him just before the salaam, then you've missed the
prayer. Anytime you catch it before that it's as though you've
quoted, then you can quickly just finish off before the janazah is
taken away. You can you're allowed to quickly finish off missing
anything.
Some folks say that comic overseer for some
it says in Noarlunga. It mentions there that if somebody makes a
we'll see, yeah, we'll see. I mean, somebody if I'm dying, I
said I want so and so to make my Janaza prayer. So how far is that
enforceable? Well, if that person is this more superior person to do
it, then he can do so then they will be allowed to, to lead the
prayer because there's additional factors which give preference to
them. However, if it's for somebody who's and who's not the
most superior person to perform that prayer, and there's others,
then it doesn't have to be listened to. It doesn't have to be
practiced and acted upon. Because we're doing something better for
the diseases. In the interest of the deceased, it's actually better
for us to get this other individual to do it, rather than,
but as far as possible, if it is possible for the person that they
have named and requested, then they, they they can do it.
During late,
right, if you join late in the Janaza prayer, what it says is
that if you've been there from the beginning, but you were doing them
or you were just coming in and you heard it, then in that case, you
will still be what they call a mudrick. So you can just carry on
and finish off with them. If you haven't heard it, then what you do
is after the Imam says salaam you just carry on and finish yours
off, doing your additional techniques. So if you've caught
one text, we read the imam or two techniques, then you just do the
other two. And then after that you finish them. And you can do that
as long as they haven't taken it away beyond, you know beyond what
you can see, generally doesn't take that long anyway. But if
somebody is mashallah going to take very, very long, then and the
janazah is going to be carried away, then, then it's too long.
But generally, you can do that, yes.
The intention for Janaza prayer is that I'm making this Janaza prayer
for the deceased, to Allah subhanaw taala.
You don't have to say all that, because that's in your mind.
Remember, an intention is in your mind, you know what you're doing?
Right? You're not absent mindedly doing this. It's a purposeful act,
that's in your mind. So there's no need to vocalize any of this. The
fact that I'm about to start my prayer, that's why we have this
procedure of Allahu Akbar, which is a very
purposeful procedure to say, I am starting my prayer. Right, and you
know what you're doing. In fact, the more you say the more
complicated it becomes. Because if it turns out that you have
infecting the books, it says that I am praying behind him, I'm acid,
and you thought he was Mr. Mustard from the back, and then it turns
out to be mum silent instead, your salad would be invalid. But if you
just said I'm praying behind this Imam, it's fine. Do you
understand? So don't get too obsessed with the wording?
Generally, just just it's in your mind that you're doing it as long
as you don't think you're coming for Valhalla, and everybody's
praying Janaza prayer and then, you know, and then slowly, you
know, then obviously, that's going to be problematic.
Just for male, sorry.
Females, females, I mean, the salaat is allowed for females,
right, depending on where it's being performed. A salad is
allowed for it's not that they can't do it and they go to Saudi,
I get questions from females, are we allowed to do the Janaza
prayer, because back home generally is done in the in
graveyards, and generally they don't go, right. They don't come
there. But in in, if there is an opportunity, yes, you can pray the
Janaza prayer.
Right. The only time a Janaza prayer can be redone, right, is if
a closer kin to the deceased missed it. Who was the rightful
one to maybe be there, but he wasn't there, then in those
particular case, then in that case, he he is allowed and if he
doesn't, then people can join them.
There's no you don't join it the second time, but if there's others
who have missed it as well, right, and they came and they missed it,
and then they felt that
I can't pray and then suddenly it turns out that a closer kin has
missed it. And he goes to pray, then you can pray behind him
to repeat that person or another.
He would lead it because he's the one who's justifying the whole
cause for anybody else who's missed it, they missed it.
No, no, once once the janazah is buried, then after that, you don't
you don't generally do that, although, I'm going to check this
up that if there's been no prayer now, so yes, the next of kin will
only be able to do this as long as it hasn't been buried. Now,
there's another question which is that if you have buried, for
example, we've got a lot of
converts mashallah, who, sometimes, unfortunately, they
die. And they've got nobody. That's, you know, Muslims who are
informed, so they're non Muslim family members take care of the
burial, right? If they're lucky, they're not cremated, and they
actually buried, then in that case, nobody's preyed upon them.
And then suddenly, the Muslim community finds out that so and
so, you know, who comes to our Masjid? Right, he's died and he's
been buried, and nobody's prayed on him. So in that case,
I need to check this, I'm going to check it later. In that case, I
think it may be permissible for some people to go and pray as long
as they say the body has not become disintegrated. How do you
know if it's disintegrated you don't check but you know, by the
local environment, you know, by the local temperatures and the way
things react in the ground here. So in in some very hot climate
climates, I think it's I think it's three days or something. And
in other climates, it could be a month if it's cold or whatever the
case is, would you know what it is here? When it disintegrates
the clay in the soil as well.
You will make your intention there is no Ivana iqama here, you will
make your intention. There's no Adonay karma here, the Imam will
just say it's starting, the Salah is starting and then they will
start so go ahead and start
along.
So you recite your son Subhana Allah whom if you want to read
that for us
Allah Allah
Allahu Akbar again.
So you say it silently and then it's the Salawat on Rasulullah
Allahumma Salli ala Sina. The same way you do a new solid
commercial Rahim Allah liberal human Nicomedia Majeed Allahumma
barik ala Muhammad wa ala Ali Muhammad come about Allah Rahim
Allah liberal human Nicomedia Majid Allahu Akbar. Allahu Akbar
again, this is the third Allahu Akbar Allahu Allah Philea you know
when we you can our show him you know what you've been reading our
comedian that was occurring of Alterna Allahumma my nephew to him
enough he lists la momento fate Amina photographer who Allah Iman.
Now you can add other doors to that if you know Allah Who maxilla
who Bill ma he was Celje well borrowed one up to him in a Hatha
Yoga coma Yonaka we'll be doing a minute Dennis is number of doors
that you can add, the longer the Imam takes, right I mean, the Imam
shouldn't take that long that everybody starts wondering what's
happening. But if the Imam is taking longer than you can add
other doors to it like for example what I just said right now which
is Allah Who maxilla who Allah wash them, and wash him, Bill ma
II was Celje well birds with water, with snow and with ice just
to show absolute purity. Oh Allah grunting absolute purity, washing
with everything. Mighty will tell you well, Bharat well Naka, he
mineral hatha yoga and purify him and cleanse him of sin and
wrongdoing, just as a white cloth is washed away from all of its
filth and dirt. So that's the DUA that we make. It is additional to
us as well that are related. And that's why what we've done is we
actually finally managed to produce a book, it's called what
the living can do for the dead. I believe we have a copy here,
right?
What the living can do it can do for the dead. Now the point of
this book is that people have so much confusion.
At this kind of a time. Let's finish the prayer. And then I'll
explain. But this tells you all the different doors that you can
make and everything that you can do afterwards. Okay, let's finish
the prayer, Allah.
Now that's the final technique. Now after that we're generally not
used to, you know, reading something, we don't read anything.
And then after that, you just do
that.
That's it. So you do the two salons and you're out. Right? Now
once you're out, then immediately the idea is to pick up the Janaza.
Right, pick up the funeral beer, the disease and take them to the
to the grave. Now there's a hadith which mentioned that when the
janazah is being carried, when the janazah is being carried the
funeral the disease is being carried. If he's a good person,
then basically saying Hurry up, hurry up. Hurry.
Yep. Right? And if it's a bad person, then it's saying, Where
are you taking me to where you're taking me to. But either way,
another Hadith tells us that Hurry up with your burial of your
deceased, you know, from a perspective of the living, hurry
up, because if they are good, then it's best for them to go to the
good that they have sent forth. And if they're bad, then it's
better that you wash your hands off them and send them forth. So
either way, there is no need for you to keep them back. Their place
now that they've passed away, is in the ground back to where it is.
That's why we say minha Calacanis calm, have en er e.com I mean,
hello collegial, calm, Tarlton aura, which we will describe when
we get to the grave insha Allah. So now the way to take this is we
need to show respect. But at the same time, we need to not be too
sensitive, you know, not overly sensitive either. They say that
you should pick up the janazah and move hurriedly, but without
turbulence, so you don't want to shake the meters. But at the same
time, you don't want to like go so slowly, either. It's a ghost city
and but Billa Hubin, you know, without turbulence. So let's pick
up the Janaza.
Generally, the general way that it shouldn't that's mentioned as
being suna is that for people do this for people will take them a
year. Now, if you look at the disease here, this is the right
hand side of the disease. Right? his right shoulder is here. And
this is the left. So we want to go with headfirst. Right we want to
go headfirst. So this should be for people to hold on to this.
There should be for people who pick up the Janaza. Right? This is
the sooner we mentioned in books, generally now graveyards it's done
differently. What the now graveyards, what they do is they
literally just form a line and they pass them over the shoulders.
Right? But what's mentioned in the and it's fine either way you take
them, it's fine, right? However, this is what this is, as soon as
so for people, let's have you got four, right. So now, if we pick
this up,
keep it stable. So I start here like this, right? My right, my my
right shoulder is to the right shoulder of the disease because
he's laying flat, right with his head here. I were supposed to go
each for people is supposed to move 40 steps. I said many this is
not practice, but I'm mentioning it because this is what's
mentioned in the books, right? 40 steps that me I would assume 10
steps each, because within 40 steps, I'm supposed to do a
complete turn. So we go 10 steps, right, we go 10 steps, which is
just about now. Right 10 steps, then I'm assuming somebody else
comes here. I'm supposed to go to the back now, you're supposed to
go to the front there, you're supposed to leave.
Right and this, there you go. Now another 10 steps. Now, as you can
see, it's very complicated this procedure, that's probably why
they don't do it. Now what you can do is just for people can take it
if they want to, they want to be selfish about it. In some
cultures, that's what they do, it is just the closest of kin, they
will do it. Why didn't others let's show show how we do it.
Let's go to the front.
You know, everybody goes to the front, and then it's just we're
just passing it over.
So this way is also fine, right where we just passing along.
Now remember, it's better to walk at the back behind them or yet
than in front of them. Unless you're going there to take over
from somebody.
One thing you have to one thing that you have to avoid here is
that you do not go and walk or walk on any graves. So the path
should be very clear. Don't walk on any graves that's very
important.
So again, to orient ourselves
Qibla is that way. So
what we want, what we eventually want to do is we want to have the
deceased in the grave facing the Qibla. But it's horizontally
towards the Qibla. So we but we want the head towards the Qibla
and preferably the body also elevated tilted towards it so the
left side will be tilting up. So the right hand side we want the
deceased on the right hand side, right and face that so the entire
body and their face is facing the Qibla. So we start we could have
had it on this side could have it on that side. It's permissible to
be on either side, but it's better to start from the Qibla side. So
to be closer to the Qibla once it's presented there, then we need
to lower the body into the grave as easily as possible. Now there's
various ways of doing that traditionally, a few people got in
mashallah, here. We've got this ladder here. Right?
Let's have two people come inside.
Now if you were using straps here to help us lift the body inside
which is fine to do that.
Traditionally, they wouldn't use straps, they would literally just
pass the body down. Right? In that case, you needed maybe three
people at the bottom. Because if the body is heavy, to people to
carry, it would be difficult. That's why we generally have three
people, maybe even four. But eventually, once they've put the
body down, at least two people will get out, and then another
person will get out. And then there's only space for one person
to finish up. So that's what we do.
Now, how deep is this grave,
this is about six feet, this grave is about six feet, do you wanna
now we're going to get a carry this body inside. Now, the easiest
way nowadays is with these with these
straps
we need to do this with as much respect as possible, right?
If this was a woman's burial, then this would be covered, there would
be a covering over here, we'd have a sheet over here, and we'd have
to do this from under the sheet. Now, there's also already a shroud
on there. But the whole purpose of doing this has mentioned in the
books and recommended is that just in case something goes wrong and
gets uncovered, so then at least people won't be able to, you know,
they're very protective, over, you know, the chastity of the female
in Islam. So anyway, let's start.
This is obviously much easier, because just the dummy, otherwise,
there'd be a bit of a struggle here.
Right now, slowly, 123
Bismillah.
Let's stretch it out.
Now, this is what they call the schicke grave, which is basically
it's like,
another grave mini grave within the larger grave, right.
As we said, the Qibla is in that direction, right? The Qibla is in
this direction. So we have tilted the body, which is probably the
easiest way to do now this is a very stiff, what do you call them?
Dummy or a mannequin, right? So it's very stiff. So it's very easy
to do that with. But with bodies, it's not that easy. That's why I'm
actually thinking that what you can do in certain cases is leave a
bit of soil on this site. So rather than make it flat, could
you make it maybe
angled so that you just it's perfect in that sense? Yeah.
They'd have to do it manually, probably because the bigger the
digger, right, okay. So now, there's not much space, as you can
see in that trench, there is not much space there. But although
you're you're generally supposed to try to have them towards the
towards the Qibla side. But because we want to tilt it, then
that means we have to add in a lot more soil by hand behind to try to
tilt, tilt it up. That's why the easiest way is to just line it
alongside the back wall here and tilt it, right. So that way, it's
already tilted. As you can see, sometimes you do have to add a bit
of soil behind it just to give them that complete support.
Otherwise, it's a bit floppy sometimes. Okay, now, once that's
done, what do we do next?
We untie those, we untie those
those ties, right?
Why is that? It don't need it anymore. That was only when we're
carrying it so that it doesn't become unfolded. Now we leave it
to the ground. So we just untie that. So this whole thing about
covering or uncovering the face right now it's permissible to see
them a it the Abu Bakr Radi Allahu anhu, when he found out that the
Prophet sallallahu Sallam had died, he was on the outskirts of
Medina when he quickly came, he came into the house, the women
folk who are there the waves etc. Or Muhammad, they moved away. He
went and he said, The Hadean when they eaten, and then he kissed the
rocks on his forehead. Obviously, it's again, it's a moment of
reflection, this is our loved one has died. Now, what's happening in
our culture is that it's becoming like an obligation, which means
that
they leave it there and if somebody hasn't come, then they
open it again. Then they've closed it, then they open again,
everybody must make a possession lineup and look at it. That's all
wrong. The close ones they want to see it. They've seen it. After
that it's wrapped up. Unless absolutely very important. Don't
dishonor them by keeping keep opening and sometimes the Janaza
prayer has been delayed. And I've seen a case where Arthur was
needed missed because Austin and Mercury were very close in summer.
And what happened is, after the answer prayer, we were trying to
get the whole procedure done. Number of people hadn't made the
answer prayer because after the harasser was very quick in winter,
and because everybody's watching the face looking at the face and
hold there were hundreds of people there. They didn't even answer
prayer. So it's been
Becoming obsessive in that case, otherwise it's allowed. So it's
one of those things where it's allowed, but it becomes like a
culture and a tradition, everybody has to do it.
Right, so you've taken off the now sometimes they pull these ties
out, while other times they just untie them and leave them there.
Right, it's just part of the shroud, you can pull them out if
you want to, if it's easy to pull them out.
Okay, so now, the idea is that we're going to take the soil now,
and everybody should take part in this, you
what we're going to do is we're going to throw the soil in now
before we throw the soil in, because we don't want to be
throwing the soil on the disease themselves. The whole point of
this trench here is that we cannot cover it. Generally, they say in
the books, they should be covered with unbaked bricks, not with
baked bricks, because you don't want anything related to fire.
Right, so unbaked bricks, or bamboo, right? However, maybe
because of the difficulty of obtaining these kinds of things
these days, we just use these planks right now these are
mashallah very heavy planks. I mean, I've seen much thinner use
these.
Right? Well, to keep them longer. Yeah, last thing I keep. Yeah,
what are they treated with? Is they like marine wood or
something?
Mashallah, okay, this is quite heavy. Yeah. But anyway, we're
gonna now line them up so that the whole thing is covered and
concealed. So one person who's in there will do this. One thing,
what you have to remember is that this kind of position, unless
you've got one person who's directing everything, everybody
becomes a director, saying, Oh, do this, do that do this, and is best
to always make one person or two people, you know, the in charge,
everybody should be silent. Otherwise, things go very crazy in
these kinds of events. This metal structure on the side is just to
stop you from caving in. Right now. We're going to is going to be
pulled out before before it's not part of it.
Okay, now, what do you do? You're going to take those out first, or
you take them out afterwards?
Yes, if there's no if you can't bury without a coffin, then you
can bury with a coffin. But in that case, then you get the the
most basic coffin you don't go for your because coffin started, I
think about two 300 pounds, and they go up to several 1000
Depending on how you want them designed and inscribed and oak and
teak and so on, so forth. So you need to get the most basic because
the idea is not to live in the ground forever, but it's to be
left to the ground. So now we're all going to take a handful, you
generally the idea is to take at least three handfuls.
Each person three handfuls. And then of course, then you use the
spades. Initially, we take three handfuls each, because again, it's
a moment of reflection. So you what's the DUA you read here?
Mean ha ha canal calm? That's with the first handful, which is you
take the first handful, right? Let's just take this. So you say
minha Halacha, can minha means from this, we have created you
this is the verse of the Quran, Allah saying, from this, we have
created you, and you drop it in.
Now imagine that how that's going to sound to the person because in
Islam, we actually believe that the disease does hear.
So don't be standing around and backbiting the disease.
Right? They hear they hear what's going on around them. In fact,
according to some they even see what's going on around them.
Right. So
during the Battle of badam, after the Battle of butter, when the
prophets of Allah Islam when they had all those who had been killed,
from the Meccans, buried or put into the well, and then the
prophets Allah son went to them. And he said, have you found what
your Lord had promised you to be true or warned you about to be
true? So some of the companions are and he says, Why are you
speaking to the dead? You know, like, and he said, that don't
think that you can, you can hear more than they can hear,
basically, that they can hear. And this is not for people who are
martyred. You know, this is for even non Muslims he's speaking
about, right. So, we have a belief that they can hear, though they
don't have you know, any perception to do things as such.
So, that was the first one mean ha ha Kanakam then you take another
one and another handful and you say well fee her normally you do
come right which is
what we normally do come and
to it, we will return you
right. So, this is what we created you from because we created from
soil to it, we will return you and then
the third handful
and you say
well, I mean her look rijo Calm Tara and okra, and from it we will
once again resurrect you. So again, it's his whole
reflection process here. So everybody wants to do that. And
then whatever's left afterwards, then we just shovel it in or they
can use.
Now, we've assumed that we have filled the grave up, right?
Generally, when you fill the grave up, though we haven't done so
today, because we're going to use this grave, you're you're supposed
to make it like a Camel's Hump, the soil you've taken out, you'd
assume that, you know, it would fill back in. But because we've
actually taken up some of the recess at the bottom, there's
going to be soil that's going to be protruding out, you make that
like a hump, right? Some people like to water it or whatever,
that's all fine. If you want to water it, you can do that.
And
after some time,
it will probably collapse. So you should come back and manage this.
So you'll see that if it has started cracking up on the side or
whatever, and some has subsided, then you just kind of straighten
it out and so on, so that it doesn't become a lopsided and
everything. The only other thing that you can really do on a grave
is to place a headstone right, somewhere within a description of
who this is just so that you can go and not get confused as to
where you're praying and so on. Right. That's mainly the reason
in terms of some of the other things
as soon as the grave is covered up, right with the soil back in,
or the live Naramata deal. It's related Abdullah Muhammad Ali
Allahu anhu, used to come to the head site. And he used to read the
first two verses of Surah Baqarah
Alif Lam Meem until Allah ego who will mostly Hone he used to read
read that. Then he used to go to the footside and he used to recite
the last two verses of surah baqarah and rasuluh Bhima on Zilla
Illa, Hema Robbie, he will not be known. One of the significances of
all of this is that as soon as you've covered up, that is when
the next journey starts for the minute for the deceased, that's
when the next journey starts. That is when the angels come in. That
is when the questioning begins. That's why generally speaking,
there are different traditions in different places. But the idea
here now is that the only thing you should do then is to make dua
to Allah, that Allah subhanho wa Taala gives them steadfastness,
and gives them the ability to make the correct responses and guides
them right in that regard. That's what you do. That's why generally,
in many cultures, they do a DUA. Now, some places they don't do a
DUA, some people like to do dua after the Janaza prayer. But the
reason that is inconsistent is because the Janaza prayer is a
DUA, right? And you've just done a DUA, you've just done a prayer.
Now you come you bury them, you cover them up, you've put the soil
back in, then we a lot of places, they follow the this practice of
Abdullah him, no matter the Allahu Anhu that he used to read at the
foot, and the head and the foot side. And then after that they do
a dua that ALLAH asking for.
There's a concept of Tolkein, right, which I've seen, observed
in someplace mentioned the books as well, it's not, it's not
completely recommended, some have recommended it while others have
discouraged it. So there's a bit of a difference of opinion about
13. What Tolkein is that you go to the grave, and you actually speak
to them to say,
your Lord is Allah and your prophet is Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa salam and you are a Muslim, in a sense, trying to
remind them, but I said that this is generally not practice in the
majority of places that you know, we have come across because there
is some difference of opinion that but we do we can make a DUA, then
the moment is, it's mentioned about different companions, that
needs to stand around
for a certain period, maybe just reflecting, because remember, now
to think that your deceased person is going to be questioned by
Allah, that's a very, very deep thought. It's a very, that's a
that's a very scary thought sometimes, right? And we want to
then reflect over that and say, what is going to happen to us when
we die? You know, the questions are going to be asked to us as
well. So that is a very strong moment of reflection. Now then
what exactly happens? We actually did another program, here, some
time back, which it's been recorded, it's on zamzam.
academy.com I believe it's called the journey of the soul after
death. So it's amazing what's going to happen, you know, after
the person, after you've put the cloth over the after the soil has
been placed over it, what happens the angels come different types of
angels, depending on who's dying, and so on, so forth. So I'm going
to refer it to that, right, I'm going to refer you to that, you
can go and listen to that inshallah. And that will give you
complete detail of exactly what happens in the different stages of
the soul. Because what happened is when the deceased died, the soul
left,
right, the soul left. Now the person is not making any
movements, right, essentially like a dummy in a sense, but they've
got an association with their soul, right, which is either by
the origin of Allah, or it could be in paradise or outside
paradise, depending on who they are, and what the person is.
What happens now is in the grave, the primary thing that's going to
happen is the question is going to be asked you
might be thinking that if we're going to ask questions here, okay,
we've got a body that we've buried. So there is somebody to
ask the questions to, because the Hadith mentions that when a person
dies, and people walk away, and it's all done, then there's two
angels that come and sit you up and ask you start asking you
questions. What about if there's not much left of you, if you've
been cremated, if you've been
maybe more than consumed by an animal, or whatever the case is
somehow, just completely as not much of you left, then what? So
what you have to understand is that in the world, our body is
primary, our soul is second secondary, in the way everything
functions, when you get into the grave, or into the next realm,
whether however, you've gone, the soul becomes primary, the body
becomes arbitrary, the body is secondary supplementary. That's
why it doesn't matter what state your body is in your soul is going
to do the asking now, and it's going to be a reflection of our
life. So you can't train for this day, in a sense. Okay, give me the
answers to the angels. What are the question? That's what happened
there? There was one teacher of mine who mentioned that his old
mother you mentioned, and she said, Can you teach me the? Can
you teach me the responses in Arabic mantra book? Who is your
Lord? Assuming that the questions are in Arabic? Right? Can you
teach me the question? The answer is in Arabic? He says, No, it's
just going to be a reflection of who you are, what you've done,
right? And what kind of divine enablement you receive at that
moment. That's why we ask Allah for steadfastness in that regard.
So your soul is primary now in this in this function, right? In
this realm, we call this the bursa, the intermediate route,
then when you on the Day of Judgment, when you get up, and
then you go either to paradise or hellfire, both your soul and your
body becomes primary. And that's why you receive the full pleasure
of anything, right? And you need that kind of capacity within you
to be able to experience the endless bliss in Jannah. Your body
and soul are both primary, they both receiving it. Unfortunately,
that's the same case in hellfire. And thus, the punishment is going
to be more severe than anything in this world. Because in this world,
our bodies feel it primarily, and our soul feels it secondarily.
Whereas when it comes into the, into general Jahannam, both are
getting the full whack of it. Yes.
Talking about standing, by the time it takes to slaughter some of
the Sahaba used to do that they used to stand there, the time it
takes to slaughter a goat and skin it, which in those days would be
about 1520 minutes. In these days. I know for us, it will take a few
hours, but it's about 1015 minutes to just stand and reflect that's
what that's exactly what it mentions.
Let's see, one of the things that I missed, which we could do is
before the Salah is about to be performed, generally one of the
imam or but obviously at the instruction of the nearest of kin,
they ask everybody is there any debts that is that are owed by the
deceased let us know right now. So we can take care of them. Because
debts being owed is a massive prevention of the mercy and
blessing. Right, and it actually encourages punishment. So you want
to try to be debt free before you die. And for our loved ones who
die, we want to try to make them debt free. So make an announcement
and say, Look, if anybody wants, they can come to us and we're
willing to repay the debt. And if not, if you don't want to come to
us, you want to forgive them, that's even better to give the
sadaqa like that. So that's one thing that we could do at that
time. Okay, in terms of nothing elaborate. Remember, we're not
presenting this, that the best way you can help your deceased is by E
solid Club, which means delivering some rewards to them asking Allah
to deliver some rewards to them, that is reading Quran, doing a
hajj on their behalf, giving charity, the best thing you can
do, as the, as the Hadith mentions is that the best thing a deceased
person can leave behind is perpetual charity. For example,
you had a well dug in some country where it's needed very, you know
very much. And as long as that well will feed the people, you get
your reward, you start an orphanage. And as long as that
orphanage continues, you make a pathway, you know, you do anything
that is going to be there forever, that is what's going to benefit
them. So rather than focus on embellishing graves, Mohammed is
one graveyard that I go to regularly. And subhanAllah. The
whole theme there is us know,
the whole theme is arsenal, right because the person was an arsenal
supporter. Now that's just the absolute waste in our
understanding that's an absolute waste because you're not
benefiting the disease. You're not benefiting them at all. The way to
benefit them is do something to help humanity others in general
and that is the reward they're gonna get. Right. So it says in a
hadith that when a day
sees goes to the graveyard, there are three things that go with him.
What are the three things that go his family, his wealth, and his
deeds. Unfortunately, after all of this is done to are gonna go back
home, his wealth, his car must have also come in or whatever it
is right, they're gonna go back his family, he's going to go back
deeds are going to continue. Now we can't give them extra deeds,
but by inspiration that they've encouraged us, like a father
taught their children well, or a teachers taught somebody Well, if
they are then inspired to do something on their behalf, then
that is fine. Like, you know, do sadaqa and have the reward go to
them, that's the best thing that that can that you can do. So what
is allowed is, for example, what I would think would be allowed is to
protect it, say protected means maybe put a boundary around it, if
you have to just say okay, this is to demarcate it, like a boundary
with some simple stones or something like this, maybe
plant something around it, you could do that. Putting flowers,
again, is generally considered a waste because they're dead
flowers. Now I know that what's mentioned is that the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam put a wet and moist
branch or like, yeah, a small branch or something, then he says,
As long as this stays moist, it will continue to pray and benefit.
So people have taken from that, that you can actually put flowers,
the flowers is more of an embellishment and beautification,
as opposed to something functional of what the process is
maintaining. So there's some difference of opinion there. And
so flowers, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't suggest
flowers at all. If anything, you could put a twig down, right, get
a you know, moist twig, branch or something. And you can put that I
remember when I visited him know his grave in Noah, he's got a
whole tree coming out of his grief. It's quite amazing.
But other than that,
you don't want it to attract kind of adornment. The idea is a
reflection. Now, when we come to visit a graveyard, right, we came
to bury somebody, that's where we start. They come to visit a
graveyard, what do you do? So again, you say that you come into
the graveyard and say, I said, I'm mighty come call me mommy. Anyway,
insha Allah who become the hippo. Now, if you're in a multifaith
graveyard, then you're not going to you don't have to read it
straight on the outside, as soon as you get in, you come into the
section that is for the Muslims. And that's where you will say that
because that's the abode of where the believers are resting. And
then after that, you can do a number of things here. The main
thing is that you read something, what they call read a Fatiha read,
sort of, if you can read sort of the scene, there are certain
narrations, they may some of them may be weak, but they actually
mentioned that you get huge rewards and the people who, what I
generally suggest is that you read something for your own disease. So
you go to their grave, and what you do is, so if we assume this is
the grave,
people are is that way, so they are facing that direction. So what
you do is you come from the side
and you face the grief, right? You face the grave, so you're facing
and you you stand at the face of the person, right? So not on that
side, but this side, you can sit down if you want to. Right, you
don't have to stand up you could sit down and you can say your
Salam again, if you want to a Salam aleikum, your added data
coming in if you want to. And you can read a bit of Quran right?
Read certain Fatiha. Right. If you've got number of them to to
visit, you can just read through the data for each of them. What I
like to do is that my mother is buried So may Allah bless her I
read through the scene. So as I entered the graveyard, I've said
my salaam I start reading Surah DRC by the time you get to the
grave, I've read most of it. Right? And then after I've read
it, then I will generally stand up now some people say some of them
are say you face the grave but while others say no, you turn you
face the Qibla so that it's not seen as it's not seen as
praying to the grave as such. So now I'm turned away, I'm facing
the Qibla and I'm making my dua now, Oh Allah, whatever I recited,
send that to my mother, Oh Allah, elevate her status in Jana,
forgive her make her grief, a guide and a paradise. These are
the kinds of dogs that I would make. And then I would make you
know, you'd make dua for yourself afterwards by saying, Oh Allah,
you know, allow us to do the right things in this world and to be
good and to prepare for ourselves and so on. So it's it's that kind
of reflective to our you'd make dua for your disease, you make dua
for yourself, because one of the major purposes of coming and
visiting graveyard is to remember death. And if it's not doing that,
then you're not fulfilling a purpose of visiting a graveyard
practice alongside Zhu Hua Zhu ha I used to prohibit you from
visiting graveyards in the beginning, but now you should
visit them because they remind you of the hereafter. That's that's
that's what it is. So, then what you can do
is you can then read some more Quran. And what I like to do read
some more corrupted, oh Allah gives this reward to all the
deceased in this graveyard. So not just for your own but hopefully,
if you don't have enough people visiting you, then others would be
inspired to at least pray for you. You know, because they've gone
they can't do anything. So now this is the one thing that we can
do is to pray. Because a hadith mentions, one of the people that
will benefit the disease after they go is well I don't Salah Han
yet the ruler who is a pious child that will take your disease on et.
So first and foremost, there is no basis for that. That doesn't make
it wrong though. Just because he doesn't have a base it doesn't
make it wrong or better. The only time it would become a bitter is
if you thought it was sooner to do so. That this is sooner. The
Prophet did it the Sahaba did it sallallahu alayhi wa sallam then
it would become a bitter otherwise it's not a bitter and you know
I'll tell you why people generally go to graveyards and eat and you
know why? Because Eid prayer unlike in London, generally unlike
England because we can't trust the weather. The Eid prayer is done in
the masala the Eid gah they call it which is generally outside of
town, generally close to the graveyard because you've got the
graveyard you've got the Eid Gah, the Eid masala prayer right next
to it. So are very close to it. So now it's a day when everybody's
free. They've done the Eid prayer. And it's a little walk to the
graveyard, they go there to you know, to give some to read corn or
whatever and then they come back home. Unfortunately, then this
became a tradition that you must do this hated you go to the
graveyard, you know, on eat knowing that Hola Hola, como la
villa, you know, but I'm not like insane, you know, all that kind of
stuff. That's when it becomes problematic. Otherwise, it's
completely fine to do that. So as long as you go thinking this is
the a good time to go class, it's fine. Okay, so
women going to review us.
Now there are some cultures, they are completely against it. Right?
There are some views which are completely against if you look at
a number of the books of fatawa, as well, there are some that are
completely against it. Another view is that the only women are
allowed to go but not the younger women. And the third view is that
younger women are also allowed to go as long as you know, they've
got control, because generally they say that women are a lot more
emotional. I mean, which we understand, right, they're a lot
more emotional. So the reason for not going right, given by certain
Allamah is that they'll break down they'll they may start shrieking,
wailing and whatever the case is. So I think what I would generally
say is that look at the individual.
If the individual thinks that they will benefit by going because for
every Muslim, male or female, they will benefit from the reflection
in agreement. If they can go for that reason, and they can keep
control of themselves and hamdulillah then it should be
completely fine in that it should be fine in that regard. According
to that opinion. I would just avoid going when there's lots of
other public, you know, the main part of the funeral or whatever I
would go in my own times. That's what I would suggest.
That's basically the way we've kind of reconciled this