(2013) Lived eschatology: Muslim views on life and death. Preliminary practices. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Re-imagining Islamic death rituals in a small town context in the Netherlands
2011
Islamic death rituals are quite thoroughly described and studies give in-depth insights in Islamic eschatology, the evolvement of Islamic death rites over time or in death rites as part of life cycle rituals among Muslims in the Netherlands. But often the focus is very much on Islam, its rules and regulations. We want to focus on Muslims and their dynamic and diverse ritual praxis in a specific (migration) context.
Islamic Death: An Exploration into the Traditions and Rituals Associated with an Islamic Death
Death and dying, for all people, is a unique process to the individual and also the community around them; death rituals are for both the living mourners who celebrate their deceased loved ones lives as well as for the souls of the deceased. However, religious or personal beliefs can alter how a person handles the process of death. Islam is no exception; Muslims have a distinct methodology for dealing with the death of a loved one. This is an essay explaining the traditional, fundamental ways in which Muslims handle the death, funeral and burial of the deceased. These processes are defined by the hadith, which are the words of approval or disapproval by the Prophet Muhammad, which is the final law. It should be noted that, for Muslims living in the western world, some of the following traditions might not be able to be applied fully due to western laws and regulations, such as burying the body without a coffin. Also, due to modernity and reformation of Islam, some of these rituals may have adapted and evolved to the times, such as allowing women to be more active in the burial process. That being said, the discussion that follows on how Muslim's traditionally handle the deceased can proceed.
Islamic tradition tends to present death rituals in a quite univocal way, as the actual ritual practice shows to be far more diverse and flexible. This study focuses on the particular ritual of the cleansing of the deceased as it is practiced by a variety of Muslims in a small town context in the Netherlands. The presented vignettes are drawn on qualitative research data from interviews and (participant) observations. They are presented to draw attention to the different contexts that shape the religious and ritual practice of a variety of Muslims in the Netherlands. To develop an eye for this common praxis, it is important not only to be aware of the religious dimensions but also of the social dimensions. By offering insights into the actual practices it aims to offer tangible leads to professionals for a more tailor-made care for Muslim patients and their relatives.
Every month a group of Muslim women gets together to study the Quran and talk about life. It is a colorful group of people in many aspects; they are of different ages, some dress conservatively while others dress according to the latest fashion and headscarves are worn in different colors and styles, while others are not veiled at all. Their personalities differ and they are from various ethnic origins: Dutch converts and others with Turkish, Moroccan, Egyptian, Somali and Surinam backgrounds. A guest was invited to speak about her work assisting in the ritual cleansing of the dead. Sharing her experiences opened up the other women to talk about the difficult subject of death. The women discovered small differences in their traditions that actually heated up the discussion on what is 'real Islam' and what should be considered superstitious notions. The realization that they had no clearcut tradition to fall back on brought confusion. 1 Islamic death rituals are quite thoroughly described and studies give in-depth insights in Islamic eschatology, the evolvement of Islamic death rites over time or in death rites as part of life cycle rituals among Muslims in the Netherlands. 2 But often the focus is very much on Islam, its rules and regulations. I want to focus on Muslims and their dynamic and diverse ritual praxis in a specific (migration) context.
The Qur’an teaches that life is a test that life on this earth lasts only for a while. The Muslim believes that there is reward and punishment, there is a life after this one, and that reward or punishment are not necessarily kept for the Day of Judgment but begin immediately after the funeral. The Muslim believes in the resurrection, in human responsibility and in the Day of Judgment. The picture of Qur’anic eschatology is in terms of the joys of the Garden and punishments of Hell. “A good deal of Muslim dogma relates to the upheavals at the the end of the world, the resurrection of the body, emerging from the tomb at the sound of the last trumpet, and then the judgment itself with the balance to weigh actions, the books which are opened, the verdict, and then paradise for some and hell for others. As among the millenarians, the description of future happiness gives a good deal of room to material promises, which include the promise of women of paradise who are reserved for the elect. The wicked will be condemned for having done wrong. In fact, human beings will be judged by their actions” .
Remember Death: An Examination of Death, Mourning, and Death Anxiety Within Islam
Open Theology
Scholarship and research in the field of thanatology require creative responses to address contemporary concerns regarding how people – individually and collectively – make sense of events and experiences associated with death and dying. This present study focuses on the broader Islamic traditions of the experience of death and the afterlife and provides a conceptual overview of the practices of mourning and memoria. This overview offers an exploration of considerations for the well-being of the deceased, interactions between the living and the dead, as well as how dreams act as conduits between the seen and unseen worlds. Additionally, this study draws from the narratives contained within the fortieth and final book of the eleventh-century Persian Muslim philosopher and jurist, Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī’s epic, titled The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife, to address and juxtaposition Muslim conceptions pertaining to death and the afterlife with death anxiety research not currently...
Islam and the Last Day: Christian Perspectives on Islamic Eschatology
Occasional Papers in the Study of Islam and Other Faiths No. 4, Melbourne: MST Press, 2014
Eschatology is a notoriously slippery word, but generally the term is used (in monotheist settings) in reference to one of three major concerns: a) what happens to an individual after death; b) the events of a universal, final judgment before God (usually subsequent to ‘resurrection’); c) the cataclysmic happenings and portents of the world’s final history just prior to the events of item ‘b’. Muslim eschatology, from each of the three main arenas, must be examined with some sensitivity, for just as ‘eschatology’ is a slippery term, so too is ‘Islam’ itself. What for example is ‘Islamic expectation’ with respect to a latter-days Messiah for Twelver Shi‘is? Or, what might a Muslim woman expect when she thinks of ultimate rewards and punishments? Where do specific Muslim ‘sects’ like the Ahmadiyya fit into this picture? What about non-Arab Muslim views of the End? What about those who used to be Muslims? The possible questions are endless. Each of the three aspects of eschatology, and each of the many angles of approach, are important in our attempts to understand Islam better. Such understanding is critical for interpersonal and inter-communal relations in our (in)tensely inter-connected world. ... In this volume we are happy to present a broad array of studies that touch on issues in Muslim eschatology. The authors bring creative and diverse perspectives to this engaging and complex field of study.
Rituals and Beliefs Surrounding Death in Islam
Journal of Adventist Mission Studies, 2020
The view of human nature within Islam can be derived from the Qur'an and the Hadiths. The Qur'an states that God created everything in six days (7:54; 57:4), and after informing the angels about the creation of human beings and their superiority over them (15:28-29), he formed them from dirt (22:5; 23:12-16). God keeps a supply of souls in heaven and takes them from there 1 (Merklin 2012:3) to place in each human being, choosing the right one for each person (Sahih Muslims 1214). Therefore, it is God who put a soul inside the first man's body of clay and he became alive (Qur'an 32:7-9). The Muslim belief regarding the soul is that the soul lives on into eternity and will receive the reward or punishment along with the body (Allen and Toorawa 2011:56). Haeri (1991:2) believes that the final destiny of people will be decided at the final judgment, but this life is given to finally allow the soul to return to where it emerged from, and that is permanent non-time reality. Although the angels knew that humans would be disobedient and sin against God (Qur'an 3:30), Merklin (2012:6) explains that humanity's failure was in that they had "forgotten" God and his ways. The Qur'an records that people were created weak (4:280), impatient (70:19), stingy (17:100), and argumentative (18:54), and it is the soul that prompts a person to do wrong as when Cain's soul told him to kill his brother (5:29). Islamic View of Death and State of the Dead The Qur'an (67:2) states that God is the one who created death and life to test humans. In Islamic literature the meaning of death is to move from a life of sorrows and sufferings to a permanent life of peace and comfort
Despite the existing wealth of literature on death studies, research on death rites among Muslim and Jews is still scarce. The present article is an exploration of literature on death studies that will help us to elaborate a conceptual frame which may allow the study of death in Jewish and Muslim communities to be better understood. It examines the uneasy relationship between religion and death studies by looking in particular at Islam and Judaism and it explores potential lines of research for further developing the academic field of Jewish and Muslim mortuary practices. It argues that central to our understanding of religious death cultures is an appreciation of the nuanced ways in which the universal and local dimensions of world religions like Judaism and Islam emerge. It presents some examples to illustrate how written and fieldwork sources can be used in the study of death in Judaism and Islam with the aim of considering the general as it is illuminated by the particularities of specific case-studies.
Cultures of Eschatology, 2 Vols., 2020
See all contributions OA here: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110597745/html In all religions, in the medieval West as in the East, ideas about the past, the present and the future were shaped by expectations related to the End. The volumes Cultures of Eschatology explore the many ways apocalyptic thought and visions of the end intersected with the development of pre-modern religio-political communities, with social changes and with the emergence of new intellectual and literary traditions. The two volumes present a wide variety of case studies from the early Christian communities of Antiquity, through the times of the Islamic expansion and the Crusades and up to modern receptions, from the Latin West to the Byzantine Empire, from South Yemen to the Hidden Lands of Tibetan Buddhism. Examining apocalypticism, messianism and eschatology in medieval Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist communities, the contributions paint a multi-faceted picture of End-Time scenarios and provide their readers with a broad array of source material from different historical contexts. The first volume, Empires and Scriptural Authorities, examines the formation of literary and visual apocalyptic traditions, and the role they played as vehicles for defining a community’s religious and political enemies. The second volume, Time, Death and Afterlife, focuses on key topics of eschatology: death, judgment, afterlife and the perception of time and its end. It also analyses modern readings and interpretations of eschatological concepts.