I recently attended a death and bereavement course at my local masjid. I wanted to do this course, as death although the only certainty in life, is a morbid and taboo subject amongst many, even Muslims who should not be afraid of death.
“Every soul will taste of death.” (3:185)
“The mutual rivalry for piling up of worldly things diverts you, until you visit the graves (i.e. till you die).” (102:1-2)
Human beings are made up of seconds, minute = time. That's all we are, and when the stopwatch stops, so will we. It is therefore wise to prepare for death. The majority of people do not have a will. The laws of inheritance in Islam are also complex for the average Muslim, so it is important to ensure the will specifies that the exectuor will distribute according to Islamic Jurisprudence. The will can also specify the person's dying wishes and requests, something which i didn't know. Unfortunately it is prevalent amongst Muslims to engage in un-Islamic practices when a person dies, these are many and include: women wailing and beating themselves, putting flowers at the grave, placing objects in the person's coffin, holding gatherings to read the Qur'an on behalf of the deceased every 3, 5, 7, 30 days after the death.
There are also issues surrounding the washing of the body and how this is done. When a Muslim person dies, they are taken to the masjid where there should be facilities to wash the body, the body is then placed in pieces of white cloth and wrapped ready for the funeral prayer. The funeral prayer differs from the normal prayers as there is only standing, 2 units of prayer and no prostration. The coffin is usually placed at the front of the imam and the congregation.
As part of the course, we had a girl who volunteered to be the dead body, and we were shown how to wrap her up accordingly, and how to wash a dead person. Although it sounds quite straightforward, i imagine it would be much more difficult when faced with washing a deceased loved one.
Although there are people in the community, who will come forward to volunteer to wash a body, it is comforting to know that someone in your family is capable of doing the job, should the situation arise. This is something that is often neglected and should be addressed to prevent forbidden actions taking place at this sensitive time.
I hope that my new found knowledge in this area is not put to the test yet InshaAllah.
“Until, when death comes to one of them, he says: ‘O my Lord. Send me back to life (on earth) in order that I may do good deeds in the things that I neglected.’ By no means! It is only an utterance that he says. And before them is a barrier (preventing them from returning: the life of the grave) until the Day (of Resurrection) they are ressurected.” (Quran 23:99-100)
I bought a new laptop about 5 months ago, and due to my own stupidity (nuff said), I have damaged it, after getting a telling off from my little bro, he sent it back to the manufacturer to see if they can repair it, me like an idiot didn't back up my files that i had on the hard drive, so any work accumulated over the last 5 months could be gone. My lil bro also told me to back everything on a separate area of the Laptop, which i did write on a sticky note to do, which i stuck to my laptop (but never got round to doing, as u may have gathered.)
Before you say, you should have said it on a USB pen, i did start doing that, then lost my USB pen not once but twice, once it was returned to me, the second time, i don't know where it is. Anyone who knows me will know that i am bit dopey, in that way, always leaving my phone in the car, with the door unlocked etc. When i was a kid, I used to get the bus home with my brother when we used to go home from Sunday School (learning chinese, not religious stuff!). I think 2 weeks in a row, i left my school bag on the bus! USB pens are a bit easier to lose though.
I have learnt my lesson from the above, if i get my laptop back repaired, i will back up all my files at least weekly and i have two dangly keyring things on my USB so they are harder to lose (she says)
Im back to using my old laptop, which is a lot slower (no WIFI) and house a defective mouse cursor meaning the mouse jumps around everywhere which is so ANNOYING!!! The wireless also cuts off every now and again.
The good thing is i spend less time surfing the internet because i dont have the patience for the above.
I hope the laptop can be repaired and i am covered under the warranty (which would be lucky as the fault is mine, not with the laptop itself!!)
I went to visit my husband's grandma in hospital yesterday and was getting ready to go, when my 5 yr old said he wanted to come, this is unusual for him as he likes to stay at home, and only go somewhere if his brother's going, me and my daughter looked at each other and thought "is he feeling alright?"
He then said he likes "dad's grandma" and that he wanted to visit her in hospital because "he feels sorry for her because she is dying!"
He went with me to the hospital said hello, then proceeded to fall asleep with his mouth open, like my dad does (without the snoring). Granny rewarded him with a packet of Quavers which she bought when they bring the trolley round for patients. Although almost 80, she has developed a good rapport with all of her 20 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren!
It's that time of the year when children all over primary schools are preparing for the school nativity play, where they re-enact the historical scenes of Mary and Joseph wandering around looking for a place to stay, where competitive mums (maybe some dads) fight for their daughters to get the coveted role of Mary (let's be honest, who wants their child to be the animals in the stable? Although my daughter was once the donkey, i think the donkey plays the most important role, as she leads the happy couple into the stable)!
As a Muslim, I don't mind my children taking part in the nativity, as we don't celebrate Xmas, it is still important for my children to understand other religions and what they celebrate, so they can contrast and compare it to what we as Muslims celebrate (which are the two Eids). I am also lucky that my kid's school takes a multi-cultural approach, this time of the year, so instead of just having a plain nativity, we have a Xmas concert, which incorporates in the storyline, Xmas, Divali, Eid and Chinese New Year. This is cleverly done, with each year taking on one of the festivals, last time it was travellers from outerspace, seeing what people on Earth celebrate, a few years ago, it was a camel, who travelled the world, he went to Jerusalem, China and India!!
My 9year old son, had the honour of playing Joseph in the nativity a few years ago, he was lovely, this year he's playing Santa Claus!! I asked him whether the teacher chose him because he's slightly chubby, and he said no and he was quite happy to play the role:)
We will be celebrating Eid-ul-Adha around the 21st December, so the good thing is, the kids can enjoy the feeling of receiving some gifts, without the commercial lie of being told that a man in a red and white suit brought it down my chimney (not very convincing, since i don't have a chimney you can climb down). As children, my family was never brought up with the hype of Xmas as we are chinese, so i don't understand why we have to tell our children that Santa brought them gifts, if i just forked out £350 for a PS3 i would want my child to known very well who bloody paid for it!
