Someone died today.

Salaamun ‘ala man ittaba’ al-Huda.

Today is Friday. It’s the Eid holidays so Zakiy and I went to Jami’ Ar-Rahimiyah for the Friday Prayer. Everything was normal until, after the post-solah du’a, the Imam announced that we were going to perform the janazah prayer. A woman died; I heard from the people talking that she is a custom’s daughter. Inna lillah wa inna ilaihi raji’un.

And so we went to the front to perform the prayer. It kinda makes me sad. A sizable congregation was there performing the solah, but even a lot more just left the mosque, not even bothering to perform the solah which takes less than three minutes with no bowing nor prostrating. What has happened to our society?

They don’t know.

That’s the most logical and husnuzzan theory I can think of. The society doesn’t know how to perform the prayer. It’s quite simple, really. The prayer consists of four takbirs after the niat. The niat is, actually, our intention that goes from the heart. You don’t have to really specify “I pray the janazah prayer with four takbirs fard kifayah for Allah Ta’ala” by mouth. It suffices that you know you are performing the janazah prayer, you know how to do it, and you do it just for the sake of Allah.

Then the Imam calls out the first takbir. After that, you recite the Fatiha by yourself. Then he calls out the second takbir, after which you recite the Solawat Ibrahimiah, the usual solawat we recite during the last tahiyyat, which goes from Allahumma solli ’ala sayyidina Muhammad … fil ‘alameena innaka hameedun majeed.

After the third takbir, we pray so that Allah will forgive the sins of the deceased: Allahumma ighfir lahu warhamhu wa ‘aafihi wa’fu ‘anhu (for male janazah) or Allahumma ighfir laha warhamha wa ‘aafiha wa’fu ’anha (for female). Lastly, after the fourth takbir, we recite this: Allahumma la tahrimna ajrahu, wa la taftinna ba’dahu, wa ighfir lana wa lahu (for male) or Allahumma la tahrimna ajraha, wa la taftinna ba’daha, wa ighfir lana wa laha (for female).

After that, the Imam will call out the salaam and that’s about it. For more info, click here.

But really, people ought to know this. This is Standard Six PAFA. Even if they don’t know, what’s the harm in sparing three minutes respecting the dead? Just perform the solah, join the congregation, follow the Imam, and pray for the deceased.

Benefits of the Janazah Prayer (Funeral Prayer)

The Prophet (saas) said, “Whoever attends the funeral procession till he offers the funeral prayer for it, will get a reward equal to one Qirat, and whoever accompanies it till burial, will get a reward equal to two Qirats.” It was asked “what are two Qirats?” He replied, “like two huge mountains.”—Sahih Bukhari Vol. 2, 410

Where is unity?

Today’s event seriously showed the lack of ukhuwwah between Muslims in our country. It’s illogical that all of them who didn’t pray don’t know the how-to’s of janazah prayer. I believe that a sizable number of them do know; they just don’t feel like doing it. Bridges between hearts? Just remains a theory for the general Malaysian Muslim. Giving salaam to strangers is considered, well, strange in today’s community; but we are talking about dead people.

Where have our respect for the dead gone? Where is love between Muslims? Allah said in the Qur’an (49:10), Verily, the Believers are not but a single brotherhood. Say, if one of our family members dies, won’t we perform the prayer upon him/her? Won’t we ask Allah to forgive him/her? We love our family, don’t we? So why can’t we love others who share the same faith as we do like our own brothers and sisters?

This is the case when a Muslimah in our own neighbourhood dies. I wonder what exactly do we feel towards the killing of Palestinians by the Zionist regime? The Prophet (saas) said (weak) as reported by Imam Tabrani, Those, who do not concern with the affairs of the Muslims, are not from them. Do we want to be part of the Muslim community? If so, start concerning with affairs of the Muslim community.

Last words

I want to highlight three points:

• Study Islam. Specifically, fiqh—especially these occassional prayers like janazah prayer and eclipse prayers. Islam asks us to. So we must.
• Respect the deceased. And pray for their forgiveness. Sparing three minutes for Islam is not hard. Allah said in the Qur’an (2:45-46)

  Nay, seek (Allah’s) help with patient perseverance and prayer: It is indeed hard, except to khasyi’een (those who bring a lowly spirit),—who bear in mind the certainty that they are to meet their Lord, and that they are to return to Him.

• Love our brothers and sisters in Islam. Seriously. We are not but a single brotherhood. We ought to love our Muslim brothers/sisters like we love our own siblings; or to a greater extent, like we love ourselves. If they sinned, we feel the responsibility to correct them. That’s what brothers do.

Wallahua'lam.