Funeral for the living

Funerals are for the living not the dead. The dead is just a body, it knows nothing, feels nothing and sees nothing. The dead is but a memory in the hearts and minds of the living and funerals are for the sake of the living to help them grieve properly.

Whether you are an atheist or a believer that we are more than a physical being, that fact remains.

For an atheist, it does not matter two hoots what we do with the body when one draws the last breath. A life becomes dust and nothing!

For a believer in the judeo-christian-islamic strand, there is the soul which will not die . The Eastern beliefs with roots in Hinduism, Buddhism and Chinese traditional beliefs, too has a belief of a soul.

What happens to the soul depends on what you believe in.

So why is there such a big hoohah about one funeral that caused so much anxieties in Malaysia? Legally it caused so much contention because the living has no right to a dead body and has no recourse to a rule of law, whether it is flawed or not! Will justice be served under such a system?

The authorities might now have the right to the body under the much debated constitution vs syariah system, but did it have the right for the soul?

The payment of RM100,000 and posthumous promotion for the deceased might be 10 silver coins to salve the conscience of the authorities but it is no recompense to the agony of the widow who was not allowed to grieve in a proper manner.

Afterall, funerals are for the living.

Look here, here, and here for a wider context, debates and background information.

addendum
more links : this one discuss conversions with further links regarding issues on conversion in and out of islam.

This article talks about the state of mind of the deceased.

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