Honoring One's Ancestors under Islam

Honoring One's Ancestors under Islam

by Jiro Arimi

Followers of Islam live in an everlasting struggle to accomplish the obligatory deeds demanded of them, and while ancestors are being commemorated, succeeding generations become more conscious of their obligations.

Before I discuss the commemoration of ancestors in Islam, I should first touch upon the foundation of the beliefs of its adherents. To a believer, the proof of one's belief is total obedience and devotion to Allah the Absolute. Accordingly, believers look upon the messages (Ayah) from Allah the Absolute as the legal standards for their daily lives, and conforming to those standards is the basis for their actions. This is because they are convinced that some time after one's death, although when is yet to be determined, there will come a day (the Day of Judgment) when there will be a deliberation at the entrance to the next world, and the extent to which a believer's accumulated deeds were in line with the messages of Allah will be determined.

While believers may conform to the revelations of the Qur'an, it is their following the example of the practices of the prophet Muhammad (Sunnah) with respect to the events that occur in daily life that serves as a more practical moral indicator throughout a believer's life. It is from this standpoint that I will look into matters related to our theme.

The funeral prayer Salat al-Janazah is recited at services for the deceased. The body is bathed according to the prescribed method and wrapped in a seamless shroud, and it is then transported to a mosque. After the services have ended, the congregation, in a standing bow, offer memorial prayers (Dua) led by the imam, and the body is interred. The Prophet has said with regard to attending funerals, "A person who follows a funeral procession and offers the prayer for the deceased shall have a reward of one Qirat, and if he also attends the burial he shall have a reward of two Qirats. A Qirat is as great as Mount Uhud [a mountain in the northern part of Al Madina Province, Saudi Arabia]."

Furthermore, if one hundred of his brethren say prayers of intercession for the deceased, the prayers will be answered. The prayers of intercession of even forty of his brethren will be answered. In other words, according to the tradition Allah's intercession will be granted to the deceased if many believers participate in the funeral. The following is written regarding grieving and wailing for the deceased:

"O Believers, protect yourselves and your families against a fire whose fuel is people and stones" (66.6), and "A person who bears a burden (sin) may not bear another's burden. If a person who is burdened calls upon another to bear that burden, not even a portion of it can be borne by the other, not even by a near relative" (35.18).

The meaning of these passages from the Qur'an becomes clear when one considers the following hadith, which counsels that one must use self-control in coping: "The deceased is punished because of the weeping and lamentations of his family."

As to services at the grave after interment, it is written that the Messenger of Allah would say prayers at the grave of the deceased after burial. It is said that he would repeat "Allahu Akbar [Allah is great]" four times for the deceased.

As to visiting graves, it is said that in the early period of his mission the prophet Muhammad taught that visits to graves should be avoided. Later, the Prophet counseled visiting graves as a means of confirming that a believer's full life has been lived in this world without regret, so that one can be prepared for the next world. According to tradition, the Prophet said, "I beseeched my Lord for forgiveness for my mother, but he did not grant it. I then asked my Lord if I could visit the grave of my mother. He granted that wish. So all of you should visit graves as well. Truly they will remind you of the dead."

Not only at the burial of the deceased, but also when at a cemetery to visit graves, the following prayers are recited for those in eternal slumber: "May peace be upon you, O you of the house of believers and Muslims" and "May Allah show his mercy upon our ancestors and also upon those in the generations that follow. Allah willing, we will join you."

Depending on the sect or faction of Islam, practices for visiting graves will differ, but I believe that in essence it is the relationship between Allah and his believers that takes precedence over all else. Consequently, although public grieving over the deaths of others or following certain customs that have become general practice may make the everyday world more colorful, this will not assure one's entrance into the next world.

Be that as it may, when the Prophet was asked about the fact that he had wept copious tears when his grandson became critically ill, his response was, "This is because of the compassion that Allah has given to the human heart. Allah is compassionate with those men who have merciful hearts."

As to a forty-day period of mourning in Islam, in many parts of the world this is the established practice. According to one theory, the time that will elapse between the first sounding of the horn, as mentioned in the Qur'an, announcing the hour of the next world when all living things will die, and the second sounding of the horn that will greet their resurrection, will be forty. But the hadith narrator Abu Huraira, when asked about this oral tradition and whether it would be days, months, or years between the two soundings of the horn, replied, "I can say nothing."

Consideration must be given not just to one's relationship to God, but also to one's immediate family, which is the main pillar of human relationships, and moreover to one's relatives and friends, as well. Although Islam, which entrusts everything to Allah both in this world and after death, does not consider the visiting of graves to be a form of worship, there are certain sects within Islam that observe anniversaries of deaths and hold memorial services the way other religions do; these can better be said to be following local customs.

While observing the usual practice as taught by the Prophet, one must focus one's attention on parents and family as far as possible. The Qur'an says the following about the relationship between parents and children:

"Your Lord has decreed this. You shall worship no one but him. Furthermore, be dutiful to your parents. If both or either of your parents reach old age while they are with you, you must not chide them or use harsh language with them. You must also show love and affection to your parents and lower to them the wing of humility, and you should say, 'Lord, please show your mercy to these two who have nurtured me from infancy'" (17.23--24).

That is the teaching in the Qur'an regarding the treatment of one's parents. A hadith further instructs on filial duty after the death of one's parents:

"'O Messenger of Allah! I have been dutiful toward my parents. Are there any duties I owe them after their deaths?' 'Yes, to pray for them, to ask forgiveness for them, to accomplish for them those things that they were not able to accomplish in their lives. Also, deepen your friendship with those persons to whom your parents had blood ties, and honor the friends of your parents.'"

In addition to visiting graves, it is recommended that one carry out obligations to perform meritorious acts on behalf of one's parents that they had left undone. Let us look at one or two examples of performing unfulfilled obligations on behalf of one's parents.

The hadith speaks about taking someone's place for the duty of fasting and purification, the third obligatory act of the Five Pillars of Islam, in this way: "A woman came to the Messenger of Allah and said, 'My mother has died, but she still had a month's fasting to complete.' And the Prophet said, 'Surely you know that if she had a debt then you must pay it off.' And she said, 'Yes, I know.' 'Carrying out obligatory acts that are owed to Allah takes precedence over performing other obligatory acts.'"

Because the fasting and purification during the period of Ramadan lasts for an entire month, if a blood relative dies during that time, in addition to a parent's debt being paid off any obligatory acts they have left undone must be carried out.

If one or both of one's parents depart this world before being able to make a pilgrimage to Makkah [Mecca], which is the fifth duty of the Five Pillars of Islam, even though it was their intention to do so, a substitute may make the pilgrimage on their behalf. The substitute may carry out this obligation if he or she has completed even one pilgrimage to Makkah.

As described above, followers of Islam live in an everlasting struggle to accomplish the obligatory deeds demanded of them (the true meaning of jihad) in an environment that encompasses individuals--parents, family, and close relatives--and furthermore, while ancestors are being commemorated, succeeding generations become more conscious of their obligations.

"Every soul shall taste death." (Qur'an 3.185)

(All quotations from the Qur'an and the hadith are English-language versions of Japanese translations made directly from the Arabic.)

Jiro Arimi is vice president of the Japan Muslim Association and a visiting professor at Takushoku University Shariah Research Institute in Tokyo. After graduating from the Toyo University Faculty of Sociology, he studied Islam as an invited student at King Abdul Aziz University, Makkah [Mecca], and Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, from 1975 to 1980.

This article was originally published in the July-September 2007 issue of Dharma World.


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