The imam of the National Mosque passed away yesterday and he was buried this morning. I observed the way many at the funeral rites behaved. Right from the National Mosque, a lot of people thought it was an occasion to snap pictures.
Others thought it was an opportunity to network and fraternise. Few used the occasion to do what deaths should make us do; reflecting on our lives and thinking of how we will leave the stage one day and in what condition we wish to leave.
At the Apo graveyard, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a Selfie stick in the air snapping away at the burial. IPads and whatever else pads competed to record the burial too.
The worst was when some men started shouting and arguing over the interment procedures. It was really saddening and disgusting. Then some people who should know started some bid’ah prayers like teaching the late imam what to say when the angels of Allah start asking him questions in his grave. This is a common error one witnesses at burials these days.
A friend and I reflected over the conduct of people before, during and after funerals. He remarked that there seems to be a heightened sense of piety during funerals that dissolves slowly but surely the instant the burial ends. We begin to forget that the one we just buried could have been any of us.
The worst of people I believe, is one who could still think of murdering another in the graveyard. How else do you explain the serious security searches at the graveyard? I kept thinking aloud that anybody who could be at the cemetery to murder or cause mayhem must be the senior brother of Ash Shaytaan. Shaytaan ought to show that one some respect. They are the likes of those to whom Ash Shaytaan says, “Fear Allah”
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