Author : Kamal Abu-Shamsieh
Publisher :
Page : 394 pages
File Size : 31,84 MB
Release : 2019
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ISBN :
The Islamic tradition regarding end-of-life care and postmortem care has been rooted primarily in practices and rituals related to offering intercessory prayers and affirming faith prior to death and preparing the deceased for funerals and burials from an Islamic legal perspective. Modernity, including advances in medicine and new approaches to healthcare, has created new and complicated choices at the end-of-life that challenges those rituals. As a healthcare chaplain, I have heard stories from religiously and ethnically diverse, Muslim patients and families who struggle to reconcile Islamic law and ethics with the possibilities of modern medicine and the expectations of a secular culture while remaining faithful to Islamic teaching about illness, death, and faith. A new approach to rituals and end-of-life care is essential to provide a congruent Islamic methodology of care faithful to the Islamic tradition and yet flexible enough to adapt to the challenges and needs of Muslim people who are at life’s end. This thesis is a qualitative study in response to this new circumstance. This dissertation examines the dying and burial of Prophet Muhammad as a case study to critically reflect on practices and procedures that inform what Muslims understand to be possible as well as necessary ritual practice at life’s end. This critical reflection focusses on three main themes: the awareness of the Prophet of the imminence of his death, the rituals and practices in dying, and post mortem care. The goals of the reflection are to understand the meaning of ‘embracing death’ from the perspective of Islamic theology and the implications of that belief for modern Muslims at life’s end.