Islamic Funeral & Death Rites Course Review

As Prophet Muhammad (S) rightly described, death is indeed the “destroyer of pleasures”. As such, we don’t like to think about death, much less having to deal with the death of others. But as Muslims, there are a certain set of ways to deal with the mayyit, cleaning him and burying him etc. Whether we like to think of death or not, there comes a time in our lives when having the knowledge on Islamic Funeral & Death Rites would come in handy.

It was a sold-out event during the weekend of 18 & 19th January 2014 as Sultan Mosque Auditorium was bustling with students, young & old, to attend the above-mentioned course organised by IslamicEvents.sg together with Pengurusan Jenazah Sinaran Baharu.

Over the 2 days, a lot of ground were covered. From the signs of death (such as a curved nose, hollow temple, shrunken facial features) to what to to when a death occurs (he even gave different scenarios of what to do depending on where the death occurs), to the do’s and don’t’s.

What’s interesting and unique about this course is that on top of going through in detail the Islamic aspects, such as what to read during janazah prayers, how and what to clean and the burial procedure, the organisers should be commended for including a detailed explanation on the legislation and bureaucracy in the Singapore system when a death occurs.

Often during such trying times, family members are at a loss on what to do and having to deal with hospitals and coroners etc makes the whole ordeal even tougher. Thankfully, participants in this course were given many different scenarios on what might happen and what you should do in each of them, such as what to bring to the mortuary or when registering a death.

Noor Firda Bte Jalal, who came with 2 friends said that the knowledge they received was new especially about the differences between cultural practices and religious duties. She found the Ustaz to be very interactive with the class and felt he was suitable to the younger generation, especially since the course was also held in English.

Another participant, Siti Salwa, also said that it was not a commonly-heard-of course and she was glad to attend it and appreciated the details that were shared.

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