I work with a woman whose father passed away and a few of us
from the office attended today.
Her father was a Muslim, but her mother was not, so my
co-worker isn’t a Muslim.
The email we received with the funeral arrangements said
women should cover their heads and could not attend the burial.
Thankfully, we work with a Muslim woman who was attending
the funeral with us who she kept us good
& gave us answers to all our questions.
The women don’t attend the burial , because they believe the
wailing & crying disturbs the soul and women are more emotional than men,
thus don’t attend.
We asked what we should wear besides the head covering and
women traditionally wear long skirts. None
of us had long skirts, so she said pants would work. Other than that, you
should dress modestly (so cover up except your hands, feet, and face).
When we got there we had to take our shoes off and sit in the
back separate from the men.
The funeral was supposed to start at 11a, but people were
still coming in at noon. The Imam (Preacher) was speaking the whole time,
mostly about Islam and life and the roles of women and how they didn’t hate
people, etc. (We think he was stalling, but we don’t know why & we later
remarked, we hoped his sermon wasn’t for us!)
One of my co-workers eventually told our co-worker (who lost
her father) that we had to skedaddle back to work… She just walked out to the parking lot to chat
with us.
We didn’t hear much about her father’s life, but it was
still very interesting. The family was wearing
beautiful full length white dresses (a color of purity and peace).
Anyhoo, turns out we probably went to the wrong event- there
was a Memorial service at a hotel after the burial where the family was going
to give tributes.
I definitely learned more about the Muslim faith. I feel fortunate
to lie in a place where I have friends of all different walks of life that they
can share with me.
Have you ever been to a church of a different religion?
