death

A few general guidelines for burial are given below. Most of these are based on common sense. They are included here for completeness:

(1) A man's body should be washed by men and a woman's body by women for obvious reasons.

General

The following Arabic terms are used in this handbook for reasons of brevity and conciseness.

Awrah: The private parts of an individual

Azan: The call to Salat

Bida'h: An innovation in religion

The publication of a Handbook of Muslim Burials may need some explanation. A review of the available literature on Islam in English shows a marked paucity of useful information on this important and sensitive subject.