“Verily the death from which you flee will surely come to you (Quran 62:8).” OMEGA JRNL

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Human life revolves around a number of stages, including birth, initiation, marriage, and, finally, death (Hamid et al. 2019). These life stages are ritualized in all societies and cultures of the world. However, variations are to be found in performing these rituals based on race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, and region. Death, as one such stage, is a universal and natural experience that is the final phase of living (Jacobsen, 2013). Death is an unavoidable and irrevocable phenomenon, with a range of dimensions. Death is not simply a biological experience. Rather, it is a multifaceted event with social, religious, cultural, and spiritual connotations (Mehta,1998–1999). Every society ritualizes death and a number of practices are linked with it. The passing of an individual is followed universally by traditional practices. At the same time, however, religious beliefs upheld by people also play a vast role in the performance of these ceremonies and practices (Mohanty, 2003). Different beliefs adjoining the notion of death mainly influence every aspect of death rites: the last moments of life, preparing the corpse for disposal, funeral practices, mourning, and the memorial ceremonies. As it is not possible to consider all belief systems in a single paper, we aim to familiarize the readers with the mourning practices set and accepted by Islam and compare such set mourning practices from the actual mourning practices followed by Muslims of Kashmir. In doing so, we anticipate to expose the societal, traditional, and religious frames that systematize loss in the target population.

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In Islam, every person is given a fixed period of life at birth. When this fixed period is over, the angel of death takes the soul from the body (Veenat, 2017). Islam provides an assorted depiction of the phases of life, death, as well as life after death (Campo, 2006). The Islamic outlook to death is, thus, structured into a cluster of practices and norms that organize the preliminary reaction to death, the funeral, and the mourning periods (Yasien-Esmael & Rubin, 2005). In the monotheistic faith of Islam, eschatology instigates a rich drapery of practices woven of Quranic scriptures, sayings of the Prophet and the cultural outlooks of early Muslim societies that they represent (Smith & Haddad, 1975). Throughout the history of humankind and across the diversity of Islamic traditions, these religious practices have been reinforced, reinterpreted, and, at times, even forsaken (Greenberg, 2007).