Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – What to Do When a Person is Dying
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There's a question that's coming up quite frequently today,
especially with regards to the Coronavirus and people having many
sick people in the house and having
people die, right either in their presence or at the hospital, and
so on. And subhanAllah This has always been the case that there's
been a lot of ignorance as to what is the end of life care that
individuals have to provide for their family members. For example,
our books of jurisprudence and others, they provide this detail.
And I remember there was a basic book that they teach in the teach
to children. They've been teaching for a very long time, it's called
tidy Mohawk. So I taught this book to my class of students in America
when I was there. And
one of the guys he was probably about nine or 10, when he studied
it, or maybe 10 or 11. And then after that, he was about 15, or
16. And his grandfather was on his deathbed, the rest of his family
are in panic, they don't know what to do. Like they don't know what
the rest of the family is responsibilities are towards the
deceased, or towards the person who's seemingly in the last throes
of life. What is the religious requirements? What are other
practical such as nobody knows, because you don't see this every
day? Right? You don't see this every day. So I've been told by a
number of the brothers who are doing the washing, who are
basically preparing the body for burial nowadays, in this
Coronavirus time, that they found that when they receive bodies
Subhanallah they in various forms of rigor mortis, you call that?
Because after a body dies, it freezes. Right, it gets set in a
certain position. That's why we're told on a practical level to do
certain things. So the idea is that there's certain things that
you read, and you try to get the patient to read the the, we call
these people matado. Right, the people who are basically about to
go into the presence of Allah subhanaw taala from here and leave
this world. So
there are certain things that please try to keep in mind this is
very, very important that if you have somebody that is dying in
front of you, then these are your responsibilities. And these are
the things that you must do. So I'm going to read too quickly from
this book that we produced a few years ago written by Dr. Sharon
Islamiat. Shutter Hussein, it's a beautiful book, what the living
can do for the dead from white thread press basically says what
to do when the signs of death become apparent. When the signs of
death manifest on a person, it is encouraged, and not necessarily
not necessary to lay the person on the right side with the limb
straightened and facing the Qibla.
The Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam instructed
regarding the carrabba, it is your Qibla alive or dead. So even for
the person who is about to die, should face him towards the Qibla.
Now it's important that those who are present tried to provide as
much comfort as they can to the dying, you don't want to be
talking about inheritance issues when they're about to die, maybe
before that, to try to make them write a will or to sort out
unresolved matters, that's a good idea, but not at the time of
death. That's a that's a very sensitive time. Right now, a few
things that you do at that time. One of the biggest things is still
keen. This is before that if you do Tolkien, Tolkien means that
you're trying to encourage the dying person to recite the Kadima,
the formula of faith that ilaha IL Allah. And you do that slowly, and
you don't tell them please recite this, or recite this, come on
quickly recite it, you actually start reading it, and hopefully
they listen to it. It basically reminds them, and then they read
it, once they really wants them Be quiet. Because you don't under
don't speak to them about anything else, because you don't want
another word to be uttered after that. So that's the first thing
that you do. That's why the Prophet saw some said in a hadith
of sahih, Muslim instruct the dying to say La ilaha illAllah.
Because it will eliminate previous sins, to die on a good note to die
on the name of Allah that you came into the world with when the other
one was called into your ear. Here the responsibility is ours. Number
two,
you can recite some Quran
around them, and just softly that's a good idea. Now in terms
of the practical aspects, when the inevitable appointed time has
arrived, and the soul has left is leaving the body. So you've
already faced them, preferably on the right side towards the Qibla.
Sometimes you may not be able to move them like that. So then you
do the best that you can. The people present and especially the
heirs, they should first you should speak well of the deceased
as far as possible. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said
that the angels they pronounced Amin upon what the family of the
deceased
You say this is a Hadith of Muslim Muhammad. So if you are going to
speak then speak well, the angels will make it it's like a dua than
an angel is inshallah will say, I mean as well. Then after that
these are the practical things which some of the, our brothers
and sisters preparing the disease will tell I've told us about to
basically let people know, you close the eyes of the disease, so
you shut the eyes, generally, they may stay left open looking up. So
you want to close the eyes calmly after they passed away and close
the eyes so that they become closed, you don't want to leave
them staring, because otherwise that's how they generally remain.
And you say Bismillah, where Allah military Rasul Allah, which
basically means the name of Allah and upon the religion of Allah's
Messenger, sallallahu alayhi salam number to close the jaws. And in
fact, if you have to tie a small string, from the bottom of the
jaw, to the top of the head, so that the jaw remains closed, lots
of people observing that people who don't know the family members
who don't know this, they, they they then the rigor mortis sets in
and they become frozen with their jaws open, it's not a very good
sight, we want to respect and honor our disease like that. So
close the jaw. As I said, you can use a bandage, if necessary.
Number three, straighten the limbs, straighten the limbs, as
soon as they passed away, then straighten the limbs, put the feet
together the legs together, and try to keep it as straight as
possible. And
if you have to tie the feet together, you could even do that
I'm not sure if that's necessary or not. But because sometimes what
they're saying is that we're receiving bodies, and the the two
legs are just spread apart. And it's very, they will put them
together because it's become very stiff afterwards.
Allahu Akbar. Number four, remove any jewelry,
right or any excess like that. Because when they come in for the
bathing and so on, it becomes quite complicated, it's better
that you can remove them. In fact, if you can, before nowadays, with
people dying in hospitals very easily, because of what's going
on, try to get the all that removed before you even go to
before you'll send your loved ones to the hospital. Because you have
to be sensitive because you don't want them to feel like you're
sending them to their death, and that you want their, their jewelry
or whatever. So that's a bit sensitive, but definitely
afterwards, try to try to remove that.
And if there's a possibility of the stomach bloating, then you can
actually play something heavy with some weight on the stomach so that
it does not bloat, you basically don't want the body to become
deformed. Very important. And if we can provide this information,
if you can write this information down, maybe we will try to do is
we'll if you if you don't have a copy of this book, then maybe
we'll try to put this instruction on the website, you will find it
on zum zum academy.com. And you can basically copy it out and
giving giving give it to the doctors at the hospital or the
nurses at the hospital that please try to do these things. I mean
they may if there's not Muslim then they may not say La Ilaha
illa Allah to them or whatever but at least they will have they can
do the other things as far as possible. And then after that, you
know you obviously make dua but these are some of the main things
just to remember when it comes to our deceased