Voices of Islam (159 page)

I also remembered three other deaths, two of which involved murder and one that was a rare case of suicide. The case of suicide involved one of the students who went to my high school and was a year ahead of me. She was intelligent, beautiful, and very competitive. However, the pressures and anxi- eties associated with the nationwide exams that took place at the end of every academic year in Morocco led her to take her life. Her case was especially tragic because of the stigma Muslims attach to suicide, which is forbidden in Islam. The Qur’an forbids suicide unequivocally: ‘‘Do not kill yourselves, for Allah is merciful toward you. Whoever does this, whether out of enmity or oppression, We shall cast him into a Fire, which is an easy matter for God’’ (Qur’an 4:29–30). The Qur’an also warns believers, ‘‘Do not destroy yourselves by your own hand, but instead do acts of goodness, for Allah loves those who do good’’ (Qur’an 2:195). In Islam, taking life is the responsibil- ity of God, the giver of life. The Qur’an is very clear that it is not the right of the human being to ‘‘play God’’ by arbitrarily deciding when one’s own life or that of another should end. ‘‘Do not take life, which God has made sacred, except as a matter of justice’’ (Qur’an 6:151).

By killing herself, the girl confi that she despaired of God’s mercy, which rendered her an outcast from the Islamic faith. Members of the com- munity showed little sympathy toward her or for the reasons that led her to commit a crime against herself. They also did not offer much consolation to her family because her suicide was considered an offense against God. However, they did their duty and buried her, according to tradition. In most Muslim countries, the bodies of people who commit suicide are not buried facing the
Qibla
—the direction of Mecca—like other dead people. However, in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco where I was raised, it was believed that God should decide this issue. Before burying the student, the gravedig- ger went to the last grave in the cemetery, took the pickaxe he would use to dig her grave, and threw it behind himself as high as it would go. Wherever the pickaxe fell would be the place where he would dig the grave. The direc- tion of the axe head would determine the direction the girl’s head would face in the grave. If the fallen axe head faced the direction of the
Qibla,
this would mean that God might forgive her and that she might yet have access to salvation. However, as a suicide, she would still be denied the funerary prayers that are made at the time of burial.

The two cases of murder that I remembered were as follows. The first case happened on the wedding night of a young Arab couple. On that night, the

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bride turned out not to be a virgin. The groom saw her lack of virginity as an affront to his honor and felt that it robbed him of something that was his right to possess on that special night. Enraged at what he felt to be an insult to his pride and dignity, he brutally murdered his young bride, mutilated her body, left a note describing the reason for the murder pinned to her chest, and disappeared before dawn. He has not been caught or seen to this day.

The second murder was that of a Berber woman in her late fi es. Twice divorced and with no children of her own, she sought companionship by marrying a third husband, an Arab man in his early sixties. Since he had lost his first wife, and his children were grown up and happily married, she found him to be a perfect match. However, she did not know about his jealousy and bad temper. One night, after attending a wedding, they returned home and got into an argument over a man who the husband thought was trying to seduce his wife. The argument ended when the husband struck his wife with his cane, which killed her. The husband confessed to the crime and was sent to prison for more than 13 years. He died only a few months after the King of Morocco commuted his sentence.

According to traditional beliefs in Morocco, all victims of murder go to Heaven. According to accounts of the Prophet Muhammad that are recorded in books of Hadith and in other works of tradition such as the
Muwatta
of Imam Malik ibn Anas (d. 795
CE
), a place is reserved in Paradise for those who have been murdered, for mothers who die in childbirth, for those who die as children, for those who die as unmarried youths, and for those who die on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Suicide, as we have seen, is a crime punishable by Hellfi As for murderers, besides serving the sentence imposed on them by the courts, they must also repent for taking a life that only God has the right to take. This is done by fasting for two consecutive months, by feeding 60 poor people, or by saving the life of another to atone for their crime. Only thus can they hope to attain God’s forgiveness.

These memories took me back to how the news of a death would change my father’s countenance. I recalled the things he said when he heard that someone had died. I could almost hear him in the background, reciting the verses of the Qur’an that every Muslim recites upon hearing of a death. ‘‘Surely we belong to Allah, and to Him we shall return’’ (Qur’an 2:185); ‘‘Every soul shall taste death’’ (Qur’an 3:185; 21:35; 29:57); ‘‘Everything perishes but [God’s] face’’ (Qur’an 28:88; 86:88); ‘‘Whoever is on Earth shall perish, but [God’s] face alone shall remain forever’’ (Qur’an 55:26– 27). My father took these verses to heart as unwavering truths and made sure that they would hold true for me as well.

I remembered how the news of a death would plunge my father into a state of deep refl n. I vividly recalled how my father’s state of mind would prompt me to listen to everything he had to say about death, the rituals it occasioned and all the paradoxes and enigmas associated with it. It was dur- ing these intense moments that I learned the most about the subject of death.

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In general terms, I learned that death was a part of life and that everything my mind could conceive and even the things I could not conceive would eventu- ally perish. My father would say that even the Earth and the Heavens would eventually go through a sort of cosmic death, like every other created thing. Even the Angel of Death would face death himself.

THE EXPERIENCE OF DEATH IN ISLAMIC TRADITION

The ‘‘delirium of death’’ (
sakarat al-mawt
)—the moment in which the reality of death comes to one’s consciousness (Qur’an 50:19)—was a matter of major concern for my father. He described it as a time of perplexity and bewilderment for the dying person—so much so, in fact, that one might even forget the
Shahada,
the Muslim Testimony of Faith.
2
At this point in the pro- cess of death, the soul reaches the collar bone (Qur’an 75:26) and then it rises up into the throat (Qur’an 56:83). The entire body feels as if it has been drowned in a floodlike state (
ghamarat al-mawt
), and the angels stretch out their hands, asking that the soul be given to them (Qur’an 6:93). At this point, the soul is about to escape from the body and the end is rapidly drawing near.

If I were to be with a person when such an event happened, my father’s advice to me was to observe the following rules. Never leave the dying person alone, so that he will be safeguarded against Satan’s temptation. Make sure that the dying person’s head is facing the direction of the
Qibla
. Assume a state of calm and serenity; make sure to keep children away from him and do not allow any loud lamentations by women to disturb him. Remind the dying person to utter the Testimony of Faith (
al-Shahada
): ‘‘I bear witness that there is no god but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.’’ Once this is done, no further request to make the
Shahada
should be made. Apply drops of water to the dying person’s mouth to quench the intense thirst that comes upon him at such moments. Doing so will help bring relief. At all times, trust that God’s mercy and goodness will prevail over His wrath, and make sure to convey this to the dying person so that he will have positive thoughts about God. Thinking positive thoughts about God is the ‘‘price of Heaven’’ (
thaman al-janna
) and repentance is the ‘‘key to Heaven’’ (
miftah al-janna
).
3
The sweat on the forehead of the dying person is a good sign because it indicates that his suffering will soon be over and that the end is near. If these rules are implemented, my father would say, the transition from the physical world to the Angelic Realm would be smoother and less painful.

My father would then describe the threshold between life and death where the physical world vanishes, and the Angelic Realm (
‘alam al-malakut
) is unveiled. This threshold is marked by the descent of angels from Heaven,

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dressed in white, with faces gleaming like shining suns. They come down from Heaven with a white silk shroud (
kufn)
and sweet, fragrant musk to wrap and anoint the soul of the believer after it submits itself in peace.
4
My father would say that every year on the fourteenth day of the Islamic month of Sha‘ban, leaves from the Lote Tree of Heaven, inscribed with the names of those destined to die, fall to Earth. These leaves are collected by Azra’il, the Angel of Death, whose task is to collect the souls and bring them back to their Lord. ‘‘Say: The Angel of Death, who is responsible for you, will gather you up and return you to your Lord’’ (Qur’an 32:11).

At the time of death, the Angel of Death comes to the dying person and conveys God’s greetings of peace (Qur’an 33:44). Then he sits by the person’s head, addresses the soul, and asks it to surrender itself in peace. According to traditional Islamic belief, the soul of the believer (
mu’min
) will slip away quickly and easily, like water jetting from a waterskin. However, the soul of the unbeliever (
kafir
), who rejects God’s truth and resists the reality of death, will shriek in protest before it finally yields itself.
5

The ‘‘pulling out of the soul’’ (
naz‘ al-ruh
) from the body, which is under- taken by the Angel of Death, marks the relinquishing of physical life and is the most agonizing of the pains that death inflicts. It is at this stage, my father said, that the soul (
ruh
), the essence of the human being that was created before its association with the body,
6
feels the pain caused by the Angel of Death pulling it away from its earthly abode. According to Islamic tradition, the soul’s true home is in the Angelic Realm, although it becomes habituated to life on Earth through association with the body. The association of body and soul starts in the womb, continues after birth, and does not end until death. However, the fact that this is a semirelationship and not a relationship of identity is revealed in sleep, when the soul’s connection with the body is loosened,
7
and in death, when the soul actually leaves the body and ascends to the Angelic Realm.

THE SOUL AND ITS ASCENT

Once the process of physical death has taken place, the Soul at Peace (
al-nafs al-mutma’inna
)—the righteous soul called by God to return ‘‘well pleased and pleasing unto Him’’ (Qur’an 89:27–28)—embarks on its ascension through the seven Heavens escorted by angels.
8
These angels, the number of which my father would put between two and four, first take the soul past all of the bygone communities of humankind (‘‘scattered about like swarms of locusts’’) before they reach the first Heaven.
9

When the angels arrive at the fi Heaven, they knock at its gate. When asked, ‘‘Who are you?’’ they reveal their identity and introduce the soul they are escorting. They testify that the soul is that of a believer whose creed (
‘aqida
) is intact and free from associating partners with God (
shirk
). At the

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gate of the second Heaven, the angels praise the person’s observance of the fi daily prayers. At the third Heaven, the person’s charitable deeds are commended. At the fourth Heaven, the angels honor the person’s practice of fasting. At the fifth Heaven, they attest that the person’s pilgrimage to Mecca was done with the best of intentions. At the sixth Heaven, they mention the care and respect that the person showed to her parents. Finally, at the seventh Heaven, they testify that the person’s repentance for her sins was genuine.
10

Having passed successfully through the gates of the seven Heavens, the soul celebrates its arrival at the Uppermost Heaven (
‘Iliyyin
), where it sees its name inscribed on the register that is kept until Resurrection Day. This highest Heaven is also known as the Lote Tree of the Furthest Boundary (
Sidrat al-Muntaha’
).
11
Here, the soul attains its closest proximity to the Divine Presence. My father would never speculate on whether the soul actually witnesses God. However, he would say that the physical death of the body is not real death. True death is in reaching a higher level of con- sciousness through the annihilation of selfhood. Once the soul is annihilated from itself, it loses all sense of identity and subsists in God (
al-fana’ wa al-baqa’ fi Allah
).

My father preferred not to talk about what happens to the soul of the unbeliever or evil person. Instead of ascending through the seven Heavens in peace, the soul of the evil person would receive a terrible reception from the frightful and horrible angels of Hell. These angels would wrap the soul in a shroud made of coarse hair, smear awful smelling substances onto it, and then try to ascend with it through the seven Heavens, only to be denied entry through their gates.
12
Eventually, the evil soul would slip out of their hands and drop into Hellfire.
13

At this point, the car in which we were riding suddenly swerved to avoid hitting another car. This brought me out of my reverie and back to the reality of where I was. I noticed that the traffi was still moving slowly and that much time would have to pass before we arrived at the funeral home.