Four or five days previous to a sick man’s approaching his dissolution, he makes his will in favour of his son or any other person, in the presence of two or more witnesses, and either delivers it to others or retains it by him. In it he likewise appoints his executor. When about to expire, any learned reader of the Qurʾān is sent for, and requested to repeat with a loud voice the Sūrah Yā Sīn (or chap. xxxvi.), in order that the spirit of the man, by the hearing of its sound, may experience an easy concentration. It is said that when the spirit was commanded to enter the body of Adam, the soul having looked into it once, observed that it was a bad and dark place, and unworthy of its presence! Then the Just and Most Holy God illuminated the body of Adam with “lamps of light,” and commanded the spirit to re-enter. It went in a second time, beheld the light, and saw the whole dwelling, and said, “There is no pleasing sound here for me to listen to.” It is generally understood from the best works of the mystics of the East, that it was owing to this circumstance that the Almighty created music. The holy spirit, on hearing the sound of this music became so delighted that it entered Adam’s body. Commentators on the Qurʾān, expositors of the Traditions and divines have written, that that sound resembled that produced by the repeating of the Sūratu Yā Sīn; it is therefore advisable to read at the hour of death this chapter for tranquillising the soul.
The Kalimatu ʾsh-shahādah [[CREED]] is also read with an audible voice by those present. They do not require the patient to read it himself, as at such a time he is in a distressing situation, and not in a fit state of mind to repeat the Kalimah.
Most people lie insensible, and cannot even speak, but the pious retain their mental faculties and converse till the very last. The following is a most serious religious rule amongst us, viz. that if a person desire the patient to repeat the Kalimah, and the sick man expire without being able to do so, his faith is considered dubious; whilst the man who directed him so to do thereby incurs guilt. It is therefore best that the sitters-by read it, in anticipation of the hope that the sick man, by hearing the sound of it, may bring it to his recollection, and repeat it either aloud or in his own mind. In general, when a person is on the point of death, they pour sharbat, made of sugar and water, down his throat, to facilitate the exit of the vital spark, and some procure the holy water of the Zamzam well at Makkah. The moment the spirit has fled, the mouth is closed; because, if left open, it would present a disagreeable spectacle. The two great toes are brought in contact and fastened together with a thin slip of cloth, to prevent the legs remaining apart. They burn perfumes near the corpse. Should the individual have died in the evening, the shrouding and burial take place before midnight; if he die at a later hour, or should the articles required not be procurable at that late hour, he is buried early on the following morning. The sooner the sepulchral rites are performed the better, for it is not proper to keep a corpse long in the house, and for this reason the Prophet said that if he was a good man, the sooner he is buried the more quickly he will reach heaven; if a bad man, he should be speedily buried, in order that his unhappy lot may not fall upon others in the house; as also that the relatives of the deceased may not, by holding the corpse, weep too much or go without food. There are male and female washers, whose province it is to wash and shroud the corpse for payment. Sometimes, however, the relatives do it themselves. In undertaking the operation of washing, they dig a hole in the earth to receive the water used in the process, and prevent its spreading over a large surface, as some men and women consider it bad to tread on such water. Then they place the corpse on a bed, country-cot, plank, or straw. Some women, who are particular in these matters, are afraid even to venture near the place where the body has been washed. Having stripped the corpse and laid it on its back, with its head to the east and feet to the west, they cover it with a cloth—reaching, if it be a man, from the navel to the calves of the legs, if a woman, extending from the chest to the feet—and wash it with warm or with cold water. They raise the body gently and rub the abdomen four or five times, then pour plenty of water, and wash off all the dirt and filth with soap, &c., by means of flocks of cotton or cloth; after which, laying the body on the sides, they wash them; then the back, and the rest of the body; but gently, because, life having but just departed, the body is still warm and not insensible to pain. After this they wash and clean it well, so that no offensive smell may remain. They never throw water into the nostrils or mouth, but clean them with wicks of cloth or cotton. After that they perform wuẓūʾ for him, i.e. they wash his mouth, the two upper extremities up to the elbows, make masaḥ [[MASAH]] on his head, and throw water on his feet; these latter constituting the four parts of the wuẓūʾ ceremony [[ABLUTIONS]]. They then put some camphor with water into a new large earthen pot, and with a new earthen pot they take out water and pour it three times, first from the head to the feet, then from the right shoulder to the feet, lastly from the left shoulder to the feet. Every time that a pot of water is poured the Kalimatu ʾsh-shahādah is repeated, either by the person washing or another. Having bathed the body and wiped it dry with a new piece of cloth, they put on the shroud. The shroud consists of three pieces of cloth, if for a man, and five if for a woman.
Those for men comprise, 1st, a lungī, or izār, reaching from the navel down to the knees or ankle-joints; 2nd, a qamīṣ, or kurta, or alfā; its length is from the neck to the knees or ankles; 3rd, a lifāfah, or sheet, from above the head to below the feet. Women have two additional pieces of cloth: one a sīnah-band, or breast-band, extending from the arm-pits to above the ankle-joints; the other a damnī, which encircles the head once and has its two ends dangling on each side. The manner of shrouding is as follows: having placed the shrouds on a new mat and fumigated them with the smoke of perfumes, the lifāfah is spread first on the mat, over it the lungī or izār, and above that the qamīṣ; and on the latter the sīnah-band, if it be a woman; the damnī is kept separate and tied on afterwards. The corpse must be carefully brought by itself from the place where it was bathed, and laid in the shrouds. Surmah is to be applied to the eyes with a tent made of paper rolled up, with a ring, or with a pice, and camphor to seven places, viz. on the forehead, including the nose, on the palms of the hands, on the knees and great toes, after which the different shrouds are to be properly put on one after another as they lay. The colour of the shroud is to be white; no other is admissible. It is of no consequence, however, if a coloured cloth is spread over the bier; which, after the funeral, or after the fortieth day, is given away to the faqīr who resides in the burying-ground, or to any other person, in charity. Previous to shrouding the body, they tear shreds from the cloths for the purpose of tying them on; and after shrouding the body, they tie one band above the head, a second below the feet, and a third about the chest, leaving about six or seven fingers’ breadth of cloth above the head and below the feet, to admit of the ends being fastened. Should the relict of the deceased be present, they undo the cloth of the head and show her his face, and get her, in presence of two witnesses, to remit the dowry which he had settled upon her; but it is preferable that she remit it while he is still alive. Should the wife, owing to journeying, be at a distance from him, she is to remit it on receiving the intelligence of his demise.
Should his mother be present, she likewise says, “The milk with which I suckled thee I freely bestow on thee”; but this is merely a custom in India; it is neither enjoined in books of theology nor by the law of Islām. Then they place on the corpse a flower-sheet or merely wreaths of flowers. [[GRAVE], [BURIAL].]
DEATH, EVIDENCE OF. The Muḥammadan law admits of the evidence of death given in a court of justice being merely by report or hearsay. The reason of this is that death is an event of such a nature as to admit the privacy only of a few. But some have advanced that, in cases of death, the information of one man or woman is sufficient, “because death is not seen by many, since, as it occasions horror, the sight of it is avoided.”
If a person say he was present at the burial of another, this amounts to the same as an actual sight of his death. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 678.)
DEBT. In Muḥammadan law there are two words used for debt. Dain (دين), or money borrowed with some fixed term of payment, and qarẓ (قرض), or money lent without any definite understanding as to its repayment. Imprisonment for debt is allowed. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. p. 624.)
Upon the decease of a debtor, the law demands that after the payment of the funeral expenses, his just debts must be paid before payment of legacies.
To engage in a Jihād or religious war, is said by Muḥammad to remit every sin except that of being in debt. [[JIHAD], [DAIN], [QARZ].]