Funeral Traditions and Ceremonies

[aatimaram]

In USA I have seen the funeral activities have changed into funeral fun activities. At wake time and burial it is a tradition, they bring beer, alcohol and food. Once I saw a person put the bottle of vodka on top of grave. I asked him, Why is he doing this? Reply was 'the man liked vodka, after darkness his soul will consume it'!!
A decade back cremation cost around $500/600, now it cost from $ 3000-10000. For ashes fancy urn have popped up in market from $500-1000.

DUST THOU ART TO DUST RETURNEST
WAS NOT SPOKEN OF THE SOUL

[kmaherali]

Things funeral directors don't want you to know

Slide show:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/savinga ... ut#image=1

[kmaherali]

The business of death is changing around the world

The trend towards fewer burials and more cremations is likely to continue

EVERY minute more than 100 people die. Most of these deaths bring not just grief to some, but also profit to others. America’s 2.7m-odd deaths a year underpin an industry worth $16bn in 2017, encompassing over 19,000 funeral homes and over 120,000 employees. In France the sector is worth an estimated €2.5bn ($3.1bn). The German market was worth €1.5bn in 2014 and employed nearly 27,000 people, a sixth of them undertakers. In Britain the industry, estimated to be worth around £2bn ($2.8bn), employs over 20,000 people, a fifth of them undertakers.

In religious countries, burial is still the norm; Ireland buries 82% of its dead, Italy 77%. But over half of Americans are cremated, up from less than 4% in 1960, and this is expected to rise to 79% by 2035. In Japan, where the practice is seen as purification for the next life, it is nearly universal. Cremation, direct or otherwise, is not the only rival to old-fashioned burial. A study in 2015 found that over 60% of Americans in their 40s and older would consider a “green” burial, with no embalming and a biodegradable casket, if any. Five years before the proportion was just over 40%.

https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphic ... m=20180417

[kmaherali]

Love After Death – Exploring Grief

A 3-part Webinar Series with Unmani

On 3rd January 2018 my husband, best friend and love, Robert Hanuman, died suddenly from a heart attack. Since then I have been riding the wild waves of grief that continue to turn me inside out. In our Western society we are not used to really giving space to grief and it’s transformative process. We tend to hide it away, to keep it small and contained, and to try to ‘get on with normal life’ too soon. Grief is such a natural part of life. As soon as you fall in love, you know you will have to say goodbye in some way, at some point. As soon as you open your heart to love, it is always opening it also to heartbreak. It is about facing the reality of losing everyone that you love, and eventually also facing the reality of losing your own self. Riding the waves of disbelief, shock, vulnerability, fear, anger, and immense sadness, can leave you very confused and lost.

But grief is not only about these very human feelings of loss, but also recognizing the Love that is never is lost. It is such a paradox, and both sides of this paradox exist simultaneously. We are fully human, and fully divine. Walking the line of this paradox gives so much freedom to dive totally without reservation, into human grief no matter where it takes you, while at the same time knowing that it is all held in Love.

In this webinar, I invite us all to share and explore this paradoxical wild journey of grieving. Grief is such a major part of waking up to the Truth because it cracks us open and open to Love. And this Love is not a dreamy kind of Love. Grief takes you out of the clouds of dreams and spiritual concepts, and plants your feet firmly on the ground. It can be such a painful slap in the face, and it can be such a gift of Love.

More...
https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/we ... a3ac270552

[kmaherali]

How Do You Want to Die?

Like most patients, mine wanted to live as long as possible. So when I brought up the option of a small implantable defibrillator for his failing heart, he immediately said yes. The device would be inserted in his chest to monitor his heartbeat and apply an electrical shock if the rhythm turned into something dangerous. It was like the paddles in the emergency room, I told him, but it would always be inside him.

In truth I wasn’t sure if a defibrillator was really such a good idea. My patient was near the end of his life. He might live longer than a year, but certainly no more than five. Patients with heart failure mostly die in one of two ways: either from a sudden, “lights-out” arrhythmia that stops the heart, or from insidious pump failure, in which the heart increasingly fails to meet the metabolic demands of the body. The former, which the defibrillator would help prevent, is quick and relatively painless. The latter, which the defibrillator would make more likely, is protracted and physically agonizing.

When the time came, wouldn’t it be better for my patient to die suddenly than to struggle for breath as congestive heart failure filled his lungs with fluid?

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/opin ... 3053090729

[kmaherali]

Our Deepest Condolences

We are a long way from the Stoicism of Seneca, but grief and how we deal with it is still a vital part of the human experience.

More....

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/opin ... dline&te=1

[kmaherali]

Ya Aly Madat,

Can anyone please help me and tell me why Women cannot attend

the funeral ceremonies??? Did it start way back to the life of the Prophet

or did the Imams make this decision???

Women can attend the funeral rites and ceremonies such as the chhanta ceremony. However they cannot attend the burial.

Our faith has a complimentarity between the Sharia and the Tariqah practices. The funeral rites are the Tariqah practice and the burial rites are the Sharia practice. In the Sharia practice we follow generally the rules adopted by the rest of the Muslims and hence women are not allowed to attend.

[shivaathervedi_3]

Please correct yourself, funeral rites and burial rites are Shari'ah practices. Do not misguide readers and youth.

[kmaherali]

Please correct yourself, funeral rites and burial rites are Shari'ah practices. Do not misguide readers and youth.

Do other Tariqahs in Islam have Mukhi/Kamadias performing chhantas?

[Admin]

In the Sharia practice we follow generally the rules adopted by the rest of the Muslims and hence women are not allowed to attend.

In Syria Ismaili women used to participate in burial ceremonies, it is only recently that they have been stopped. Tradition may vary according to geography and time. Guptis Ismailis are not burying their dead, they follow the tradition of the majority among whom they live and women attend funeral ceremonies.

In my life, I have seen so many times ladies reciting Quran in front of Imam, dressed in western dresses (There are even videos of this). it is only recently that they have been stopped and man have taken over the recitation in Didars and the norm has changed. This is not Shariah or Haqiqat, it is bigotry.

Uniformisation is not necessarily strength, it can be weakness in some case. In less tolerant societies, our people have been obliged to practice Taqiya, so much so that at some point what was once practiced as Taqiya, becomes the norm and the historical memory is forgotten. Not only in Ismailism but in many other faiths. This also applies to burial ceremonies.

My point is that we do not have to look at these practices only in the light of Shariah versus Tariqah, there are also other ways of analyzing.

[shivaathervedi_3]

Only in Satpunthi funeral system there are Chhantas for forgiveness, rest of ismailis for example Afghans, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kaziks, Chinese don't believe in such kind of Chhanta system. They believe 'as you sow so will you reap'. JE WAWSHO TE LU(N)RSHO. Follow what Pir has said;

AAGAR HAATT NA PAATT NA VOHRA
TIYA(N) SAT KA SAMAR SATHEY LIYANA

[kmaherali]

Only in Satpunthi funeral system there are Chhantas for forgiveness, rest of ismailis for example Afghans, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kaziks, Chinese don't believe in such kind of Chhanta system. They believe 'as you sow so will you reap'. JE WAWSHO TE LU(N)RSHO. Follow what Pir has said;

AAGAR HAATT NA PAATT NA VOHRA
TIYA(N) SAT KA SAMAR SATHEY LIYANA

But they practice Chiragh-i Roshan. Isn't that a Tariqah practice?

[shivaathervedi_3]

Only in Satpunthi funeral system there are Chhantas for forgiveness, rest of ismailis for example Afghans, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Kaziks, Chinese don't believe in such kind of Chhanta system. They believe 'as you sow so will you reap'. JE WAWSHO TE LU(N)RSHO. Follow what Pir has said;

AAGAR HAATT NA PAATT NA VOHRA
TIYA(N) SAT KA SAMAR SATHEY LIYANA

But they practice Chiragh-i Roshan. Isn't that a Tariqah practice?

But Chirag e Roshan has nothing to do with mayet chhanta. It is related to ibadat and ruhaniyat. Mayet chhanta is given to dead body and not soul.

[kmaherali]

But Chirag e Roshan has nothing to do with mayet chhanta. It is related to ibadat and ruhaniyat. Mayet chhanta is given to dead body and not soul.

The prayers conducted in both of the ceremonies are for the purification of departed souls. Both are Tariqah practices and are attended by women.

The burial on the other hand is a Sharia practice not attended by women.

[shivaathervedi_3]

But Chirag e Roshan has nothing to do with mayet chhanta. It is related to ibadat and ruhaniyat. Mayet chhanta is given to dead body and not soul.

The prayers conducted in both of the ceremonies are for the purification of departed souls. Both are Tariqah practices and are attended by women.

The burial on the other hand is a Sharia practice not attended by women.

Is practice of Chirag e Roshan meant for burial rituals or Chhanta ceremonies? Please read the following paragraph on Chirag e Roshan.

It appears in the Northern Area of Pakistan that a white cloth is spread on the ground and a lamp (chiragh) is burned in the middle. No other light is allowed to be kept or used as long as this lamp remains burning. The Koranic verses and other religious formula are recited while preparing the wicks of the lamp and inserting the oil made of the fat of sacrificial animal. With loud chanting of salwat, the qadi stands in front of the khalifa (headman) and places the lamp down again three times. It exhorts the Oneness of Divine Light in the universe, but has three relations: the relation to God, the Prophet and the Imam of the age. When the lamp is kindled, the believers deduce that the Imam is the bearer of the living Light of God on earth. It is also known from the rites of Afghanistan and other regions of Central Asia that a piece of salt is put into the pan of the grained wheat (dalda), in which a knife is kept. Then, a certain amount of cotton is put into a pot. Someone picks up the pan in recitation of the salwat and presents to the khalifa. The participants stand up in reverence and the khalifa raises his hands and invokes a prayer of twenty-seven verses. The proceeding is followed by the sacrifice of a sheep, which is called dawati. It should not be lean or skinny. It should be fatty, so that the lamp may be burned from the oil of its fat, called rogan-e-zard. The sheep is thoroughly washed. Then, the khalifa picks up the piece of salt with his left hand and smashes into small pieces with the knife holding in his right hand. He relieves the knife and takes salts and three pieces from the grained wheat and puts on the palm of his right hand, mixing them and passes on to his assistant, who gets the sheep to eat the mixture. The khalifa utters the takbir and his assistant facing towards the qibla, slaughters the sheep. It follows the rite of cotton-making (kar pakhta). The khalifa picks up the cotton and gets it touched to his forehead and prepares a long wick (fatila) for the lamp amidst the chanting of the verses of Chirag-nama. This long wick is folded and the khalifa holds its circle in his finger, who cuts it into respectable pieces. Then, the ghee (rogan-e-zard) is poured into a bowl (chinni). The khalifa puts some ghee in the lamp (kandil), then he drenches all the wicks in the bowl. His assistant takes out the wicks and squeezes to make them ready for burning. Then, the wick is inserted in the lamp and lightened. It is placed in the lantern, which is usually made of a special stone (sang-i sanglej), looking like a ship. The lamp is gray in colour.

But Mata Salamat did attended the burial ceremony of MSMS. In USA and Canada I have seen women are allowed to participate in Janazah Namaz which in other countries like India and Pakistan they are not allowed.

[kmaherali]

Is practice of Chirag e Roshan meant for burial rituals or Chhanta ceremonies? Please read the following paragraph on Chirag e Roshan.

Chirag-i Roshan is meant for the elevation of the soul of the diseased person. The chhanta ceremony is also meant for the purification of the diseased soul. Their purpose is the same and both are Tariqah practices.

But Mata Salamat did attended the burial ceremony of MSMS. .

Yes Mata Salamat attended the burial ceremony of MSMS. However MHI was very displeased about the whole matter. Below is the description about the incident provided by Willi Frischauer in his book: The Aga Khans.

"At Aswan, Prince Karim first went to the Begum's house, where the body of his grandfather was lying in state, and discussed with her the next day's funeral arrangements and the part of the mourners in the ceremony. Muslim tradition required it to be an all-male affair with the ladies remaining in the background: 'According to our custom,' said Mr Zulfikarali C. Valiani, who helped to make the arrangements, 'the men would assemble in one tent while the ladies would be in another tent. . . .'

At twelve-thirty p.m. on the day of the funeral, Prince Karim, accompanied by the Mir of Hunza, Sir Eboo Pirbhai, Mr Amirali Fancy and other Ismaili dignitaries, went to the local mosque for Friday prayers. The funeral procession formed at three p.m. In Aly's absence, the three nearest male relatives—Karim, Amyn, Sadruddin—and the late Aga's long-serving old valet, Solomon Bandely, carried the coffin on the last stage to the fortress-like Mausoleum on the hill overlooking the Nile. As the procession passed the ladies' tent, the Begum emerged. Dressed in a white sari and accompanied by a friend and a maid, she followed the cortege, a break with Muslim custom. The young Imam showed no sign of
his disapproval, and did not utter a word. But when the funeral was over, the coolness between him and the Begum was evident. The Imam of the time had been publicly defied by the widow of his predecessor. The incident caused a rift which was not healed for several years. It certainly put an end to any notion of Prince Karim accepting guidance from the Begum—or anyone else for that matter.

He was Imam in his own right.

As if to underline her own right, the Begum at the head of a large retinue of women paid another visit to the Mausoleum a few weeks later. To reporters she talked with some bitterness about the Aswan incident: 'Prince Karim did not want me to follow the procession on the grounds of Ismaili rites,' she said. ' If I went to the Mausoleum contrary to his wishes, it was only because I was tired and did not want to wait for hours in the gilded armchair in which I was to sit.' Members of her late husband's family, she added, did not speak to her and left the day after the ceremony without taking leave of her: I know that Prince Karim does not have the slightest intention of following his grandfather's wishes so far as I am concerned . . .' Ten years later, when I mentioned the incident, the Aga Khan dismissed it as a minor misunderstanding about religious etiquette which was best forgotten: 'The Begum is European . . . ' was all he said by way of explanation."

[shivaathervedi_3]

kmaherali[/quote]Chirag-i Roshan is meant for the elevation of the soul of the diseased person. The chhanta ceremony is also meant for the purification of the diseased soul. Their purpose is the same and both are Tariqah practices.

[quote="shivaathervedi"]
But Mata Salamat did attended the burial ceremony of MSMS. .

Kmaherali: Yes Mata Salamat attended the burial ceremony of MSMS. However MHI was very displeased. when the funeral was over, the coolness between him and the Begum was evident. The Imam of the time had been publicly defied by the widow of his predecessor. The incident caused a rift which was not healed for several years. It certainly put an end to any notion of Prince Karim accepting guidance from the Begum—or anyone else for that matter. He was Imam in his own right.


Reply:
Is Chhanta given to soul or dead body? Soul is already departed then what is use of giving Chhanta. Dead body is buried under ground where ' KEEREY KHAWAN MAAS SABAGHA'.

Reply:
Mata Salamat became Ismaili few years prior to death of SMSM, being an Ismaili was that not her duty to obey Imam of the time?

[kmaherali]

Reply:
Is Chhanta given to soul or dead body? Soul is already departed then what is use of giving Chhanta. Dead body is buried under ground where ' KEEREY KHAWAN MAAS SABAGHA'.

Chhanta is given to the body (whether alive or dead) for the benefit of the soul. There is no point in sprinkling water on a body which goes to dust otherwise. Please take note of the prayers recited during the ceremony. It is for the benefit of the ruhani.

Reply:
Mata Salamat became Ismaili few years prior to death of SMSM, being an Ismaili was that not her duty to obey Imam of the time?

I agree! However the Imam ultimately forgives upon repentance and mercy

[kmaherali]

Officials in China use strong-arm tactics to curb burials

To make their point, they seize coffins and smash them

Excerpt:

Since Xi Jinping took over as China’s leader in 2012, officials have stepped up their anti-burial efforts. In 2014 the government said it wanted the cremation rate to grow by up to 1% annually for the rest of the decade, with “close to 100%” cremation in selected areas. It has been trying harder to promote “ecoburials”. These can involve ashes being packed into tall columbaria, buried in flower beds or sprinkled into the sea. The confrontations in Jiangxi occurred after several of its counties said they would allow no more burials after the end of August. Videos on social media showed old people lying in their coffins to stop officials from seizing the caskets.

More...
https://www.economist.com/china/2018/09 ... a/154158/n

[MushkilAsaan]

Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) said:“ALLAH WILL SEND ANGELS TO WELCOME THE BELIEVER AT THE TIME OF DEATH; AND THEIR PASSAGE WILL BE EASY…”

Both men and women are welcome at the funeral services. As a tradition, only men will be invited to the cemetery to partake in the burial services.
The understanding for this is that: Women bring life into the world; it is men’s responsibility to take care of the deceased.
During the funeral services, although men and women are (for the most part) physically separated, there are no physical barriers dividing the genders. Women are not required to cover their head (it’s personal preference); most do not cover their head. It expected that both parties come with clean and respectable attire out of reverence for their presence in the House of God. There is a coat-room for you to hang your coat/jacket and a place to keep your shoes as the interior carpeted prayer-hall is a shoe-free zone. Plenty of chairs will be provided for those who are uncomfortable sitting on the carpeted floor. There are many, male and female uniformed volunteers to assist visitors with any questions you may have and provide any assistance / guidance that you may require.
It is possible that 1, 2 or 3 funeral services to be held on a given day (Tuesdays & Thursdays at 12:30pm and on Saturday at 9am). Immediate family members will be requested to arrive approximately 2 hours earlier to aid in the performance of the final rites and rituals on behalf of the deceased. If there are more funerals scheduled on a given day, alternate times will be arranged to accommodate the family of the departed. All services will be held together at the same time and all attendees will sit and be gathered together for a communal funeral service – there are no divisions or preference given to one over the other (rich/poor, male/female, all are God’s children and equal in the eyes of the Lord).

Burial services to be held at:
Elgin Mills Cemetery
1591 Elgin Mills Rd. E.
Richmond Hill, ON
L4S 1M9
(905) 737-1720

Directions from Scarborough Jamat Khana parking lot to Elgin Mills Cemetery (approx 23 min.)
- Turn LEFT on to Nashdene Rd. from Scarborough JK
- Turn RIGHT onto Middlefiled Rd. (going North)
- Turn LEFT onto Steeles Ave. (going West)
- Turn RIGHT onto McCowan Rd. (going North)
- Turn LEFT onto Major Mackenzie Dr. (going West)
- Pass Hwy 404 (going over the bridge)
- Turn RIGHT onto Leslie Street (going North)
- The entrance to the cemetery will be on your right (this is just south of Elgin Mills Rd.). Once you enter the cemetery grounds, look for SECTION 16 which will be located on your LEFT hand side. There is an alternate entrance from Elgin Mills Rd (at the traffic lights)


Background:
The Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. Generally known as the Ismailis, belong to the Shia branch of Islam. The Shia form one of the two major branches of Islam, the Sunni being the other. The Ismailis live in over 25 different countries, mainly in Central and South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as in Europe, North America and Australia. His Highness, Prince Karim Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary Imam (spiritual leader) of the Ismaili Muslims, and is a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him).
Like other Shia Muslims, the Ismailis affirm that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) designated his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as the first in a continuing line of hereditary Imams. For Ismailis, this spiritual leadership, known as the Imamat, has continued in direct lineal descent from Ali and his wife Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter, to the present Imam.
Spiritual allegiance to the Imam and adherence to the Shia Imami Ismaili Tariqah (persuasion) of Islam according to the guidance of the Imam of the Time, have engendered (caused) in the Ismaili community an ethos (culture) of self-reliance, unity, and common identity.
The ethics of the faith revolve around the concepts of volunteerism, generosity and compassion and brotherhood. As such, when a death occurs within the Ismaili community, members gather together to assist their fellow brothers and sisters and provide the bereaved family with community support.

Funeral Ceremony:
Muslims believe that everyone is equal in the eyes of God. Therefore every funeral is identical; prayers, rites and ceremonies dress and cemetery arrangements do not vary.
Muslims believe that only the soul is eternal, and as such, from the moment one learns of the death of loved one, there is the continuous recitation of prayers for the soul of the deceased until the funeral ceremonies and rites are complete.
The funeral service is held at the Ismaili JamatKhana (place of prayer and gathering). In keeping with tradition, removal of one’s shoes upon entering the Jamatkhana building is kindly requested. All are seated on the carpet with the other members of the congregation, alongside the bereaved family. Women and men are seated separately within the same area. Chairs are available for those who need them.
The funeral ceremony includes reading of the passages from the Holy Qur’an (Islamic scripture / holy book) and recitation of prayers. At this time there is an opportunity for all to pay their last respects to the deceased. Volunteers guide those gathered for this purpose.
The Salwat (plural of salat, meaning “prayer”) – “Allahumma Salli Ala Muhammadin Wa Ale Muhammad” (O Allah (God), shower Your blessings upon Muhammad and the Progeny of Muhammad) is recited throughout the ceremony interspersed with other recitals.
Following the recitations and paying of last respects, the casket (Janaza) is closed after which special prayers (Fateha and Namaz-e-Mayat) are recited. Upon completion of the prayers, the casket is carried in a procession to the hearse on the shoulders of the men while prayers (Kalimah Tayyibah: lā ilāha illa'llāh, muhammadur rasūlu'llāh" which means: There is no
God (Allah) but God (Allah), [and] Muhammad [peace be upon him] is the messenger of Allah (God). This continues a great historical tradition whereby family and friends would have carried the casket on their shoulders and walked from the home of deceased to the burial ground. An adaptation of this tradition has been maintained over the years as a reflection of community, spirit and brotherhood.

Some say, that the LIFTING OF JANAZA (coffin) three times signifies past, present and future journeys of the soul
Allahumma: Salle ala Muhammedin wa Ale Muhammadinil Mustafa O Allah, shower Your blessings on Muhammad the Chosen and his progeny
Salle ala jumla-e-Amebee-yae wal Mursaleen Shower Your blessings on all the Muslims (Believers) of this world
Wa alal Mala-i-katil muqqarabeen (Shower Your Blessings) on angels who are in constant prayer
Wa ala ibadill hissaleheen(Shower Your Blessings) on all the Momins (gathered here and elsewhere) who are in prayer
Berehmat-e-ka ya Ar-rahmur Rahemeen Verily, You are the most Compassionate and Merciful
Illahhee Ameen Allah, accept our prayers
In-nallah wa Mala-i-katehu yussal-loona alaNabi-Yi The angels in the heavens are sending their salutations (prayers of peace) on the Chosen Messenger and his progeny
Ya Ayyo-hal-lazeena Aamenoo O Ye Believers
Salloo alayhe wa sallemoo tasleema Gather together and send your salutations (by reciting Salwat)(Recite Salwaat)
Subhaana Rabbeka, Rabbil iz-zate ammayasefoon wa salamoon alal mursaleenAllah in His Glory will send peace on all the believers who are here (in this world and all those who have passed before us)

Wal Hamdulillah-e-Rabbil aalemeen All praise is due to Allah the Maintainer of all Beings
Qul e shain zilatahu Maut Death is incumbent on every living thing
Inna Lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajeun From Allah we have come and to Him we return

NAMAAZ E MAYAT:
Namaaz mee guzarum bar mayyete Hazar (Hazera)Wajeb qurbatin illallh ALLAHO AKBER I declare my intention (niyyat) to offer congregational prayer upon the body of the deceased to reach the presence of AllahAllah is Great
Ash-hado unla illaha illallaho I declare there is no deity but Allah
wa ash hado unna Muhammedanr-Rassoolallah salallaho alehi wa Aalehi ALLAHO AKBER I declare that Muhammed is His (final) Messenger, Let us all declare that Allah is Great
AAllahumma sale ala Muhammadin wa Aale Muhammed (recite three times)ALLAHO AKBERO Allah shower Your Blessings on (through)Mohammad and his progeny* (ala can also mean ‘on’ or ‘through’)Allah is Great
Allahummaghfirlil momineen wal mominaate I ask for forgiveness for all the Momins and around the world
Wal, Muslimeen wal muslimaate (I ask for forgiveness) for all believers here and around the world
ALLAHO AKBER Allah is Great
Allahummaghfir-li haza (hazil) mayett I ask for forgiveness of behalf of the deceased

ALLAHO AKBER Allah is Great
ALLAHO AKBER, ALLAHO AKBER Allah is Great, Allah is Great
LA ILLAHA ILLALLAHO There is no deity except Allah
WALLAHO AKBER Allah is Great
WALILLA-HIL HAMD For Him is all Praise

This concludes the funeral ceremonies at the Jamatkhana.
Now, the men who choose will leave for the cemetery; they will enter their cars and follow the hearse’s procession. Uniformed volunteers will provide maps and directions for you if you need. The remaining congregation will take this opportunity to line-up and provide their individual condolences to the immediate female family members who will be seated to greet and accept the condolences of the attendees. The uniformed volunteers will help guide everyone to ensure anyone who wishes gets a chance to pay their respects to the departed’s family. It is tradition for people to say one simple word to the departed’s family and that word is: “Shukar”. This word translates to “Thanks” and it’s in reference to how thankful we are that the departed is now in the hands of their creator (God-Almighty) and now in eternal peace. (Ameen). The men who attend the cemetery services will get the same opportunity to provide their condolences to the immediate male-members of the departed as they too will form a line at the cemetery at the end of the burial services and accept people’s condolences. If more than one burial is taking place, family members and other attendees are generally not divided based on who they have come to bury.

Burial:
In accordance with Muslim tradition, the men in attendance proceed to the cemetery for the burial ceremonies. Women gather in the Jamatkhana for further recitations and to offer condolences to the women of the family of the deceased.
At the cemetery, prayers are recited as the coffin is carried toward and then lowered into the grave. Each person takes a handful of earth and places it in a vessel.
Normally, one would recite Al-Fateha over the pinch/handful of earth they grab from one vessel before placing it into the secondary vessel. But now, to prevent people’s hands from becoming soiled, a representative does it on behalf of all who have gathered and later all the attendees will stand shoulder to shoulder for a communal recitation of al-Fateha; one time for the deceased, and another time for all who have gone before (remembering all those who have passed away before).
As the coffin is removed from the hearse, a double line of attendees is generated to guide the coffin to its final resting place – during the procession, Kalimah Tayyibah will once again be recited and it goes as follows: “lā ilāha illa'llāh, muhammadur rasūlu'llāh" which means: There is no God (Allah) but God (Allah), [and] Muhammad [peace be upon him] is the messenger of Allah (God).
The previously gathered and prayed upon earth is placed beside the body of the deceased (inside the coffin) to symbolize the body’s return to dust. The casket will then be lowered into the ground and sometimes attendees will be invited to shovel some dirt on top of the casket. A bulldozer will plough the remaining dirt on top of the coffin. In the meantime, incense sticks will be lit and distributed. Once the coffin is covered with the earth’s soil, water will be poured on top of the mound of dirt to help seep into the earth and aid in the decomposition of the body below. In Islam, it is believed God (Allah) created us from clay and it is to clay we shall return. Everyone is then invited to place the burning incense sticks into the ground covering the departed.
This is followed the by recitation of the Fateha prayers (The 1st Chapter of the Qur’an).
Bismillāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm
In the name of God, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
Al ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-ʿālamīn
All praise and thanks is for to God, [The] Creator, Owner, Sustainer of the Worlds.

Ar raḥmāni r-raḥīm The Entirely Merciful, The Especially Merciful.
Māliki yawmi d-dīn
Owner of the Day of Recompense.
Iyyāka na’budu wa iyyāka nastaʿīn You alone do we worship and You alone we seek for help.
Ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭa al-mustaqīm
Guide us to the Straight Path.
Ṣirāṭa al-laḏīna an’amta ‘alayhim ġayri l-maġḍūbi ‘alayhim walā ḍ-ḍāllīn The path of those whom Your blessings are upon, not of those whom You have cursed nor of those who have gone astray.[

Ameen!
Immediate members of the deceased will line up (if more than one funeral is taking place, members from each of the decesed families will form a line together – no division). At this point condolences are offered. The uniformed volunteers will help guide everyone to ensure anyone who wishes gets a chance to pay their respects to the departed’s family. It is tradition for people to say one simple word to the departed’s family and that word is: “Shukar”. This word translates to “Thanks” and it’s in reference to how thankful we are that the departed is now in the hands of their creator (God-Almighty) and now in eternal peace. Insha’Allah (God willing) (Ameen).
Note: It always feels colder at the cemetery as it is an open area and the wind sometimes really picks up, so please dress appropriately with the necessary layers / hats / gloves and scarves if need be along with a pair of boots to protect your feet and clothing / from the possible muddy conditions at the gravesite. You may want to bring an umbrella if there is precipitation. In the summer, the mid-day sun is the hottest, so please feel free to bring a hat or umbrella if need be as there is no shade except for the odd tree. The volunteers present will be onsite to provide bottled drinking water and tissues if you need. If by chance any females (regardless of their age) have also tagged along to the cemetery, it is humbly requested that they kindly remain in their cars during the burial service. Women are more than welcome to visit the grave after the departed has been buried.
Sometimes, a private reception is held by the family member(s) of the deceased – they will personally invite and provide you accordingly with the details.
The mourning period will last for 40-days post burial where by special prayers will be held for the departed at the Jamatkhana of choice by the departed’s family members. Special anniversary dates will be especially highlighted such as the 10th day, 20th day, 40th day, 3-month anniversary, 6-month anniversary and 12-month anniversary. All these services are considered private ceremonies intended for Ismaili members to partake in.
[/b]

[kmaherali]

Could the post above be edited to remove the unrecognizable/unreadable characters and replace them with familiar characters?

[mazharshah_1]

After reading the post by Mushkil Aasaan, it looks like he is from USA or Canada because he has described the Tariqa of Janazah Namaz and burial ceremonies which are performed in USA, Canada, Europe, and African countries where Ismailis live. Particularly African Ismaili jamaits where they live follow the Janazah Namaz, Eid Namaz, Ziarat, Tasbihat, and fixed days of majalis given and guided by MSMS 80/90 back.
But in late 70's Hazar Imam changed the Tariqah of Janazh Namaz and Eid Namaz for Ismails all over the world and called it Fatimi Tariqah. Currently this Tariqah is followed in Pakistan, India, and Middle East.
In African Ismaili Tariqah they say 7 Takbirs and different format of Du'as, where as in Fatimi Tariqa there are 5 Takbirs and different Du'as recited.
Before Fatimi Tariqa in Pakistan and India, they used to say 4 Takbirs according to Sunni Hanafi Tariqa allowed by MSMS.
In Pakistan during Burial gathering home AYAT E SHAFA FROM QURAN ARE RECITED (takes about an hour) published by ITREB Pakistan, this tradition is not allowed in USA or Canada, instead mostly Fateha and Ayatul Kursi are recited.
At present, there are 3 versions of Janazah Namaz active, Central Asia. USA/Canada, and IndoPak. Our Imam is one, our Tariqa is one, therefore there should be uniformity in Janazh Namaz, Eid Namaz and Ziarat.

[Admin]

Could the post above be edited to remove the unrecognizable/unreadable characters and replace them with familiar characters?

This version of Forum accept only some diacritical marks, not all of them. I have talked with many scholars trying to explain that writing like scholars just complicates the work of search engines and especially in UNix server, it does create difficulties when displaying as some browsers will recognise them and others will only display their equivalent ascii symbols and numbers.

When you post, disable the check mark in the bottom where it says disable html, it will help a little in display.

[georgieb]

My mother was Ismaeli, and with the help of the community received an Ismaeli burial when she died last year. The headstone is being raised next week. I am wondering what the usual practice for maintaining the grave space is. Most of the other graves seem to have been levelled and turfed. At the moment, hers just has a mound of earth. I would appreciate any advice on how to best maintain the space.

[Admin]

The tradition is to put a plate horizontal on the ground at that place with her name and date of birth-death. That is in North America.

However, there are variances according to the region. For example in some region there are vertical plates. In some regions (India, East Africa) there is a raised surface that follows the contour of the grave and the plate is on the side of the feet.

So I don't think there is any hard and fast rule except that it has to be discreet considering her soul has already reached her destination and what remains is only memories for us to cherish.

My personal opinion.

Admin

[kmaherali]

A new documentary shows how attitudes to death are changing in America

Increasingly, people do not want conventional funerals. More want a say in how they will die and are remembered

Excerpt:

It is one of many quietly moving moments in this documentary from HBO, which takes a subject most people are wary of thinking of, are keen to avoid—death—and looks at it straight on. The starting point of the film is that, in 2018, cremations overtook ordinary, mostly very expensive burials in America. Increasingly people want to have more control over how or when they die; or, once they are dead, their relatives want to celebrate their lives in ways that do not conform to the notion of a traditional funeral.

Guadelupe (pictured), a terminally-ill man, has a “living wake” with all his family and friends surrounding him several months before he dies. Barbara Jean, who has pancreatic cancer, goes with her best friend TJ to see the “green burial” (ie, environmentally friendly) plot where she will be laid. As they view the site in a golf buggy, the woman who works at the burial ground tells her that people, when viewing their prospective plots, tend to lie on the ground and look up at the sky, to take in their burial view. Soon after, the film shows TJ and Barbara’s other friends washing her body and interring her at the spot she has chosen, planting a tree in the grave at the same time.

The film also follows families who send the cremations of their loved ones into space on a rocket. Emily and Ryan Matthias, a couple whose five-year-old son Garrett died of cancer, are interviewed too: he asked for bouncy castles and superheroes to be at his “life celebration”, rather than having a “sad” funeral, so after his death they followed through with his wishes.

The most striking episode in the hour-long documentary, however, is the segment following Dick Shannon, a former Silicon Valley engineer whose cancer has stubbornly remained despite treatment, and has now metastasised into his lungs. He wants to end his life on his own terms, and lives in California, a state with a “death with dignity” law which allows him to do so. In the first shot of him, he is with his wife of 57 years, visiting the doctor who runs through how he is to take the end-of-life medication: the lethal cocktail needs to be prepared somewhere which is not a public place and, although it can be mixed by someone else, he has to take it without assistance. Usually, the doctor explains, people slip into a coma and then die within half an hour of taking it. With tears in her eyes his wife says that “it’s a really difficult process, but it feels like the right decision”.

More....

https://www.economist.com/prospero/2019 ... a/293495/n

[kmaherali]

The Movement to Bring Death Closer

Home-funeral guides believe that families can benefit from tending to — and spending time with — the bodies of their deceased.

Excerpt:

In the United States, we have come to see death as an emergency. We call the doctors, the nurses, the police, the emergency workers, the funeral staff to take over for us. They hurry corpses from hospital rooms or bedrooms into designated, chilled death spaces. They dig and fill the graves for us and drive our loved ones, alone, to the crematories. They turn on the furnace, lift the bodies, close the door.

There may be no other rite of passage around which we have become more passive. We carefully vet the doctors or midwives who will deliver our babies. We pore over options for wedding venues and officiants. But often we don’t plan for death. So when it arrives, we take what’s easily available. In a 2016 survey by the National Funeral Directors Association, 81 percent of respondents said they called only one funeral home before making their decision. If death practices reveal a culture’s values, we choose convenience, outsourcing, an aversion to knowing and seeing too much.

We used to live far closer to death. If you died before the turn of the 20th century, women from your family and your community would lay you on a table or a bed. They would wash you, dress you in simple clothes, comb your hair, clip a lock of it to wear in a necklace. As men dug your grave, family and friends would sit beside you, reciting prayers, singing, surrounding you with candles and flowers to help ward off the odor from your decomposing corpse, while the children came and went, unshielded from the inevitability of death and decay. And when it was time for your body to go, your family would wrap you in a shroud or a winding sheet, often made of wool or cashmere, and place you into a wood coffin, a six-sided burial box tapered at the feet and head. (The word “casket,” in contrast, is now used in the funeral industry to refer to a four-sided burial box.) Finally, a group would carry your coffin on their shoulders to the backyard or the town cemetery and, after a small service, lower you into a newly dug hole in the ground. The whole process demanded work, attention, a reckoning.

That began to change during the Civil War. For the first time in the United States, men died en masse, far from family. Families who could afford to shipped the bodies back home. But the train trips were long — some railways began to refuse decomposing bodies in wood coffins — and families wanted their sons, brothers and husbands looking as preserved as possible, as Drew Gilpin Faust recounts in “This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War.” Surgeons, undertakers and others began performing rudimentary embalming of soldiers using arsenic, zinc chloride or other ingredients. It was President Abraham Lincoln’s death, though, that introduced embalming to the general public. His embalmed body was on display in Washington for nearly a week and then traveled by train for two more weeks, making frequent stops for viewings, ending up in Springfield, Ill. Initially, observers noted that his face was remarkably lifelike. A few days in, as one New York editor wrote, Lincoln, who was re-embalmed multiple times during the journey, was a “ghastly shadow.”

The funeral industry emerged over the following decades — faster in urban areas than in rural ones. In 1890, there were 9,891 funeral directors in the United States; 30 years later, the figure had more than doubled, despite the fact that the death rate had dropped substantially, as Gary Laderman, a professor of religion at Emory University, writes in “Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and Funeral Homes in 20th-Century America.”

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/maga ... 3053091222

[kmaherali]

An Afterlife So Perilous, You Needed a Guidebook

Archaeologists unearthed the remains of a 4,000-year-old “Book of Two Ways” — a guide to the Egyptian underworld, and the earliest copy of the first illustrated book.

When it comes to difficult travel, no journey outside New York City’s subway system rivals the ones described in “The Book of Two Ways,” a mystical road map to the ancient Egyptian afterlife.

This users’ guide, a precursor to the corpus of Egyptian funerary texts known as “The Book of the Dead,” depicted two zigzagging paths by which, scholars long ago concluded, the soul, having left the body of the departed, could navigate the spiritual obstacle course of the Underworld and reach Rostau — the realm of Osiris, the god of death, who was himself dead. If you were lucky enough to get the go-ahead from Osiris’ divine tribunal, you would become an immortal god.

“The ancient Egyptians were obsessed with life in all its forms,” Rita Lucarelli, an Egyptology curator at the University of California, Berkeley, said. “Death for them was a new life.”

The two journeys were a kind of purgatorial odyssey reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons: extraordinarily arduous, and so fraught with peril that they necessitated mortuary guidebooks like “The Book of Two Ways” to accompany a person’s spirit and ensure its safe passage. (The “two ways” refer to the options a soul had for navigating the Underworld: one by land, the other by water.) Among other annoyances, the deceased had to contend with demons, scorching fire and armed doorkeepers, who protected the dead body of Osiris against gods bent on preventing his rebirth, according to Harco Willems, an Egyptologist at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Success in the afterlife required an aptitude for arcane theology, a command of potent resurrection spells and incantations and a knowledge of the names not just of Underworld doorkeepers but also of door bolts and floorboards.

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/scie ... 0920191231

[kmaherali]

The iPhone at the Deathbed

Families are photographing death at home. These photos may feel jarring on Facebook, but the practice itself has a long history.

After Robert Alexander died at 51 during heart surgery in June 2018, after he was taken from the hospital to the facility that would recover the tissue and bone he had donated, he was brought to his uncle’s farm in Hinton, Okla., where his six siblings, his mother and other family members and friends had gathered to give him a home funeral.

They laid him out on a sturdy folding banquet table and dressed him in well-worn bluejeans, a Harley Davidson bandanna, a long-sleeved Affliction T-shirt and his black leather vest painted with the American flag. On the wall behind him, they hung a blanket emblazoned with a flaming skull.

A mechanic, Mr. Alexander had loved motorcycles, though his health and finances had kept him from being a regular rider. After he was properly adorned, and “looking pretty badass,” as his sister Tawnya Musser said, his siblings and their mother gathered around him, and a brother-in-law took a family photo using his smartphone.

“We couldn’t think of a time when all of us had been together with Mom,” Ms. Musser, 34, said. “So we had the conversation. Did Mom want a photo with all seven of her children and was it morbid that one of them was dead?”

There ended up being several photographs. They are startling and beautiful. Mr. Alexander looks peaceful and regal. The siblings have shared them among themselves, but the images don’t live on social media, as many contemporary death photos do.

In a collision of technology and culture, of new habits and very old ones, we are beginning to photograph our dead again.

For families like Mr. Alexander’s who are choosing home funerals and following natural death practices — D.I.Y. affairs that eschew the services of conventional funeral parlors — photography is an extension and celebration of that choice.

Family members are sitting with kin in hospice, or taking them home from hospitals, and continuing to care for them after they die, often washing their bodies and then adorning them, as Mr. Alexander’s family did, with favorite clothes, flowers, cards, books and other totems. They are sending their dead off as their grandparents used to, and recording the event and its aftermath with their smartphones.

“You can die in a way that has beauty attached,” said Amy Cunningham, 64, a funeral director in Brooklyn who specializes in “green” burials, without embalming or metal coffins, and assists families who are caring for their dead at home.

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/styl ... 3053090220

[kmaherali]

Someone Has Died. That’s When Their Job Begins.

Funeral directors are risking their lives to care for Covid-19 victims.

It’s 8:30 p.m. and Sherry Bensimon, a funeral director at Riverside Memorial Chapels of New Jersey, in Hackensack, is still at work. A colleague who just returned from Hackensack University Medical Center tells her that the hospital’s refrigerated trailers, one of which arrived that day, were already at capacity. Each holds about 50 bodies — and that’s in addition to the hospital’s two morgues. “They’re full already?” Ms. Bensimon’s voice cracks. “Oh God.”

We talk a lot about the emergency medical workers and doctors and nurses whom we clap for every evening. But funeral directors are the last responders on the front lines — the people who come after someone has died. While they help families say their final goodbyes, funeral directors and their teams operate largely in the background. “We’re not a profession where we feel you need to recognize some of us,” said Vanessa Granby, 29, a director at Granby’s Funeral Service in the Bronx.

They’re vital to public health, but they’re also at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus. This week, BuzzFeed News reported that scientists in Thailand documented what they believe is the first instance of the virus’s transmission from the dead to the living, amplifying the conversation about the need to support those in the “death care” sector. Along with health care workers, they’re running short on personal protective equipment.

In hot spots from New York to Louisiana, funeral directors are overwhelmed and doing their best to adapt. They’re figuring out how to comfort mourning families from a distance. They’re working 12- to 15-hour days. Sandwiched between overflowing hospitals and backed-up cemeteries, funeral homes are at their maximum capacity, taking on double or even triple the number of families they might in an average week before the pandemic.

“We’ve become order takers, basically,” said Elysia Smith, 38, a funeral director at International Funeral Service of New York. “We’re trying to fill the order as fast as possible. It feels really impersonal.”

Funeral directors are people who feel compelled to serve. From the moment a family calls, directors guide them through the lengthy process of taking care of someone who has passed — removing the body, arranging memorials, organizing the cremation or burial, navigating the paperwork and consoling the families through their sorrow.

It’s a job built on trust and compassion in moments of immeasurable grief: Can I trust that you will take care of my loved one with dignity and reverence? Can I trust that you will honor the value and spirit my loved one brought to this world? Can I trust that you will help my family celebrate the meaning and love this person brought to our lives and to so many others?

“I feel really responsible when a family calls me,” Ms. Smith tells me. “I feel like I’m their voice.”

Now there are too many calls. There are too many deaths. There are too many families. And because space is limited, funeral homes are doing the unimaginable: turning families away. “It’s the total opposite of what we do,” Ms. Smith said.

Part of the job involves removing the deceased, which means going into people’s homes, nursing facilities, hospital morgues and, in some places, refrigerated units holding the bodies.

While they’d once wear work attire and gloves to do a removal, death-care employees are now suiting up with N-95 masks and Tyvek suits or plastic gowns, maybe even double layering their gloves. They’re disinfecting body bags with a germicidal spray before bringing them into the funeral home. Not all calls come in as confirmed Covid-19 cases, but funeral directors are practicing universal precautions, treating each case as if it might be infectious.

“It’s almost like we’re playing Russian roulette,” said Stephanie Simon, 56, an industry veteran with nearly 30 years of experience.

Ms. Simon works as an embalmer and director at Charbonnet Labat Funeral Home in New Orleans. She has started wearing a hazmat suit and a respirator when preparing a body. (Other embalmers are now working in similar gear.) With a confirmed Covid-19 case, among the riskiest things embalmers may do is remove the intubation tube, which can produce large but visible droplets that contain the virus.

For Ms. Simon, the pandemic reminds her of Hurricane Katrina. “That was a devastating time for us and changed the way we did our daily routine,” she said.

Rather than spending time with families face-to-face, getting to know them and their loved ones, directors are largely making arrangements by phone, Zoom or FaceTime. Paperwork is done electronically.

Most are organizing direct burials or cremations, with families postponing memorial services until stay-at-home orders are lifted. Some funeral homes still offer limited viewings for immediate family members only — one hour maximum, no more than 10 people, chairs staggered six or more feet apart. Live-streamed funerals are becoming more common.

Eric Friszell, 22, is a resident funeral director at the Nolan Funeral Home in Northport, N.Y., a position he has held since August. “It’s two major adjustments: It’s me coming out of school and into the field, and it’s adjusting to this whole new way of directing,” Mr. Friszell said. “I didn’t expect to be learning the ropes during a pandemic.”

Ayris Granby, Vanessa Granby’s aunt and the Granby’s home’s business manager, has been a funeral director for three decades. Many of those she serves are foreign-born New Yorkers who want to send their loved ones back home to countries like Jamaica, Guyana or Trinidad and Tobago. But that’s not a service she can provide right now: The logistics, from travel restrictions to the paperwork, make the request nearly impossible.

What pains Ms. Granby the most is not being able to do her job the way she knows best: through touch, which can’t be digitized.

“When you see someone hurting and you can’t reach out to comfort them,” she said. “I feel the loss more, because I can’t give more.”

In this time of social distancing, there’s something especially unnatural about not being able to embrace someone who’s suffering, her niece, Vanessa Granby, said. “Now it’s just words.”

Rituals are disappearing, too. Services at most churches, temples, synagogues and mosques have been suspended, and graveside farewells are increasingly restrictive.

Helon Rahman, 46, is the director and owner of the Rahman Funeral Home in Detroit. In a recent week, she conducted 15 services — double the normal. More than half were Covid-19 cases. While Ms. Rahman specializes in Muslim burials, she has also started serving other faiths. Non-Muslim funeral homes are unable to handle the flood of deaths, she said.

Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be washed before being shrouded and buried. But because of uncertainty around the virus, Ms. Rahman is instead performing the tayammum — purifying the bodies with something other than water. She puts dirt over the areas that are normally washed — feet, hands, face and head — all while the body is in a bag.

“I can count on my hand how many times I’ve done that in 10 years,” Ms. Rahman said. She performed it only in cases where a body was badly decomposed. “Now we are doing this several times a day,” she said. The funeral prayer, the Janazah, is a shadow of the communal action that it’s supposed to be.

Ms. Rahman recently oversaw a funeral where the Janazah was performed by a handful of people praying around a hearse pointed toward Mecca. The coffin remained in the vehicle.

“We can’t make the family happy,” she said. “We can’t allow them to be part of the rituals that they would normally be part of.”

For Ms. Bensimon, the director in New Jersey, her heart aches for all those she brings into her care whom she knows died alone. It’s not just the constant calls that keep her up at night.

“I’m worried that there won’t be enough of us to take care of the dead,” Ms. Bensimon said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/opin ... 778d3e6de3