Reflections on Life and Death

Reading Our Own Funeral Prayers completely wiped out. God uses this event to convey a lesson about life to others. When a Muslim dies, people wash and clean and clothe a corpse with great care and carry it to the grave that awaits it. And when they lower the corpse into the grave, each of them takes a handful of mud and puts it in the grave. They do this three times. While doing it the first time, they say Minha khalaqnakum (“From the earth We have created you”). When throwing in the mud the second time, they say Wa fiha nuidukum (“And We return you to it”). And the third time, they say Wa minha nukhrijukum taratan ukhra (“And from it We shall bring you forth a second time”). This putting mud in the grave three times is the climax of the whole event. In this way, it serves to remind us of the reality of man and of what our final destiny is. Reading Our Own Funeral Prayers O nce, a Muslim man died, and after the funeral prayers were said, he was buried in a graveyard. A friend of mine went to attend the funeral prayers. The prayers were just about to start when a person who was standing next to him asked him, “Should I make the intention of offering farz (obligatory) or optional prayers?” My friend replied, “Make the intention of offering your own funeral prayer!”