One’s Own
Funeral Prayer

Attending a funeral prayer, one should feel that he were saying his own funeral prayer. He should remember his own death at every moment. Remembering death is a characteristic of a sensitive person, while failing to do so is the shortcoming of an insensitive person.

When a Muslim who lived in Delhi died, he was buried in a local graveyard after his funeral prayer was performed. Maulana Mohd. Zakwan Nadvi was present at this funeral prayer. When the prayer was about to start, a Muslim who had to join in the prayer, asked Zakwan Nadvi, “Is this an obligatory prayer or a sunnah prayer?’ Zakwan Nadvi replied, “It is your own funeral prayer.” The man was shocked. Then Maulana Nadvi explained to him that saying the funeral prayer is not a ritual. It is rather a reminder of a serious reality–that we are all going to die, just like the person who has already died. The truth is that the true funeral prayer is said by one who sees his own death in the death of the deceased person. Then he thinks that what has happened to the dead man will also happen to him. One who thinks like this, when he stands up for funeral prayer, should feel as if he were saying his own funeral prayer; that what has happened to the other person is going to happen to him tomorrow.

Death is not going to come to one person. The event of death is inevitably going to overcome every man and every woman. Furthermore, death does not come after an announcement. It overtakes man all of a sudden. And, when the time of death comes, no one has the power to turn it away. Death is an inexorable and unchangeable reality, for one man as well as for another. Man ought to think of his own death at every moment. One who is so oblivious of this stark reality that even seeing another’s death does not remind him of his own, can be likened to an insensate stone. Apparently, he is a human being but he is as devoid of human qualities as a statue made of stone. Remembering death is a characteristic of a sensitive person, while failing to do so is the shortcoming of an insensitive person.