HZ.PEYGAMBER DÖNEMİNDE CENAZELER VE KABİRLER: BAKΑA UÇAN VÜCÛD-İ CÂVİDÂNÎLER

Year 2004, Issue: 4, 129 - 144, 01.12.2004

Levent Öztürk

Abstract

Funeral Ceremonies and Grave Styles in The Prophet Muhammad’s Time

Abstract

Death is a phenomenon that has both psychical and sociocultural
aspects. That is to say, having an unknown and complex nature death is
a psychical concept and in view of various funeral ceremonies and
grave styles it is a sociocultural concept. Like all other societies, the
Arabian society before the reign of the Prophet Muhammad had some
beliefs and rituals related to death and funeral ceremonies. With the
prophet’s new principles and practices about the concept of death
however, they started to put what they learnt into practice while
carrying on with some of the former ways. In this article, we intend to
study the practice of the Arabian society about funeral ceremonies and
graves. Discussing the subject from sociocultural point of view we will
study the process after death with its important elements, i.e Islam
prayer at funerals and burials and graves. So, the subjects like illness,
visit the sick, the moment of death, the dead body’s shroud etc. will be
held in another article. Furthermore, death phenomenon will be
considered as an important part of social life and held according to the
historical methods. With this study we aim to use hadith as historical
records for filling the gaps on the social life of the Prophet
Muhammad’s reign. Hence, hadith will be a field that gives valuable
records to history for supporting the latter’s effort to find all the
necessary information about historical process.