6 practices of remembrance, supplication and farewell

Dhikr is the repeated remembrance of God, by phrases such as subḥān Allāh (glory to God), al-ḥamdu lillāh (praise to God) and Allāhu akbar (God is greatest). The Quran says: “Surely in the remembrance of God do hearts find rest,” and commands the believers to remember God often.^[2] The Prophet advised saying the three phrases thirty-three times after each prayer.^[3]

He also compared the one who remembers his Lord with the one who does not to the living and the dead.^[4] The practice needs no place, no ablution and no teacher, which is why it travels into walking, waiting and working.

The scholars agree on the value of dhikr and differ on its forms. Some regard organised group sessions, with fixed counts and set movements, as an addition to the Prophet’s practice. Others hold that the Quran’s general command to remember God often allows them. Both sides accept the plain version: a believer alone, saying the phrases quietly, as often as he or she can.

Duʿāʾ is personal asking, in any language, at any time. “When My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answer the call of the caller when he calls on Me.”^[5] Another verse has God say, “Call on Me and I will respond to you.” The Prophet said, “Supplication is worship.”^[6]

There are no intermediaries and no fixed form. People ask for guidance, health, forgiveness and one another. The Prophet taught set supplications for particular moments, such as waking, travelling and entering a home, and the believer is free to add his or her own words.

The obvious objection is that many prayers of this kind seem unanswered. The tradition replies in two ways. The Prophet said that a servant’s supplication is answered so long as he does not grow impatient and say, “I called and was not answered.”^[7] And scholars have long taught that an answer may take the form of something other than what was asked, so that the asking is never wasted.

When a Muslim dies, the body is washed by members of the same sex, and the schools allow a spouse to wash a spouse with some differences of detail. The water is clean, the washing is done with respect, and it begins with the right side and the parts washed in ablution.^[8]

The washing is a communal duty (farḍ kifāya), which means that the whole community is answerable until enough of its members have done it. The Prophet’s instructions come from the death of his daughter Zaynab. He told the women washing her to wash her three times, or five, or more if they saw fit, with water and lote-tree leaves, and to put camphor in the last rinse.

The rite treats the body as something owed honour. The same report shows the household doing the work, with the Prophet advising and not directing from a distance, so that care for the dead stays a family and neighbourhood matter, without a professional priesthood.

The body is wrapped in plain white cloth, three sheets for a man. For a woman the schools differ, and many prescribe five pieces. No coffin is required. Aisha reported that the Prophet himself was shrouded in three white cloths of Yemeni make, with no shirt and no turban.^[9]

He also recommended white clothing to the living and said that the dead should be shrouded in it.^[10] The simplicity makes the rich and poor equal at the end. A sceptic may ask whether this is only custom, since many peoples bury in white. The answer from the sources is that Muslims follow it because the Prophet did, and it holds across lands and centuries because the instruction is short and concrete.

The prayer, ṣalāt al-janāza, is said standing. It has four takbīr (saying Allāhu akbar) with no bowing or prostration. The Prophet prayed four takbirs over the Negus of Abyssinia when news of his death arrived.^[11] The usual order includes praise of God, a prayer for the Prophet, and a prayer for the deceased and for the living community. The schools differ on the details, such as whether the opening chapter of the Quran is recited.

The Prophet said that whoever’s funeral is prayed by forty people who associate nothing with God will have their intercession accepted for him.^[12] He also described the reward of one who attends a funeral until the prayer, and again until the burial, as a measure like a great mountain.^[13]

Some critics cite the verse that a person has only what he strove for (53:39) against the idea that prayers help the dead. Most scholars reply that the funeral prayer is itself the Prophet’s practice, so that the benefit of prayer for the dead rests on his example.

Burial is as quick as can be done, in the earth, the body lying on its right side facing the Kaaba. The Prophet said, “Hasten with the funeral.”^[14] Visitors are told to condole for three days. A widow keeps a longer mourning of four months and ten days.^[15]

Grief is allowed. The Prophet wept at the death of his son Ibrahim and said, “The eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, and we say only what pleases our Lord.”^[16] What the tradition forbids is wailing and the tearing of clothes, which express protest against God’s decree.

Cemeteries are kept plain. The Prophet discouraged building over graves, and the schools generally prefer a low mound with no structure.