ABSTRACT

Islamic beliefs concerning death and dying are important and intrinsic to the faith. These beliefs include the process by which the believer is eased into death, the statements of talqin (stating the profession of faith into the ear of the dying one), the washing of the body of the deceased, the immediate burial usually in a simple white cloth, and the process of praying for the dead. All of these categories are given a major treatment inside the hadith (tradition) literature, and developed further in the legal compendia, which then is interpreted into popular belief and custom, leading to what we can call the Muslim death ritual. Beyond these visible and generally accepted elements of the death ritual, there are a number of Islamic and popular beliefs concerning the dead, some of which are accepted by the mainstream, and some of which are not.