IB World Religions 5.2.1. Rites of Passage: Birth, Marriage and Death Notes

5.2.1. Rites of Passage: Birth, Marriage and Death

Birth rites and naming

1. Muslim rites of passage gather at birth, marriage and death, and each one puts the shahadah at its centre so that a single testimony frames a whole life.
2. The adhan (call to prayer) is whispered into a newborn's right ear and the iqamah (the second call) into the left, so the first words a child hears state the oneness of Allah.
3. Tahnik follows in many families. A softened date is rubbed on the baby's palate, a practice traced to the Prophet Muhammad and still common in Arab and South Asian households.
4. Naming is usually done on the seventh day. Names of prophets are favoured, and Shi'ah families often choose 'Ali, Husayn or Fatima from the ahl al-bayt.
5. The 'aqiqah is performed on the same day. An animal is sacrificed and the meat shared with relatives and the poor, while the baby's head is shaved and silver equal to the hair's weight is given as charity.
6. Practice varies by region and school. Many Sunni families offer two animals for a boy and one for a girl on the basis of a hadith, while other families and many Shi'ah scholars treat one animal as sufficient either way.

Khitan and early childhood

1. Khitan (male circumcision) is practised across the Muslim world. A hadith lists it among the practices of the fitrah, alongside trimming the nails and cleaning the teeth.
2. It is not commanded in the Qur'an. Most Shafi'i and Hanbali jurists hold it obligatory, while Hanafi and Maliki jurists usually classify it as a strongly recommended sunnah.
3. Timing follows region rather than doctrine. Many Arab families circumcise within days of birth, Turkish families commonly wait until a boy is between five and ten, and South Asian practice varies widely.
4. Where it is delayed it becomes a public celebration. A Turkish sünnet party dresses the boy in a decorated outfit and gathers the extended family, and Egyptian and North African families hold comparable feasts.
5. Female genital cutting is found in some regions where Muslims live. It is not required by the Qur'an, is unknown across most of the Muslim world, and has been condemned by many senior scholars and Muslim medical bodies.

Zawaj and the marriage contract

1. Zawaj (marriage) is a contract in Islamic law rather than a sacrament. Muslims describe it as half of religion and as the ordinary setting for family life.
2. The nikah contract requires an offer and an acceptance in one sitting, the free consent of both parties, and two witnesses. It is commonly written down and registered with the state.
3. The bride receives a mahr (dower) named in the contract. It becomes her own property, may be paid at once or deferred, and is not paid to her family.
4. Most Sunni schools require a wali (guardian) to conclude the contract on the bride's behalf, while Hanafi law allows an adult woman to contract her own marriage.
5. The walimah (wedding feast) makes the marriage public. A hadith directs that it be held even if only with a single sheep, and secret marriage is discouraged for the same reason.
6. Twelver Shi'ah law permits mut'ah, a marriage contracted for a fixed term, which Sunni Muslims hold was abolished during the Prophet's lifetime. It is among the sharpest disagreements between the branches on family law.
7. Ceremonies differ greatly by region. South Asian families hold henna nights across several days, Iranian couples sit before a sofreh-ye 'aqd spread, and Indonesian weddings weave adat custom around the nikah.

Washing and shrouding the dead

1. Death rites begin before death. Relatives prompt the dying person to say the shahadah, a practice called talqin, and the body is turned towards the qiblah where that is possible.
2. Burial is quick, usually within a day. Muslims explain the speed as respect owed to the body rather than as haste.
3. The body is washed in the ghusl, an odd number of times, by relatives of the same sex, with a spouse permitted in most schools. Sunni law buries those killed in battle unwashed and in their own clothes.
4. It is then wrapped in the kafan (shroud), plain white cloth, three pieces for a man and five for a woman in usual Sunni practice.
5. Plainness is the point. Rich and poor are dressed identically, which Muslims read as the same levelling that hajj performs among the living.

Janazah and burial

1. Salat al-janazah (the funeral prayer) is offered over the body at the mosque or the graveside. It is a fard kifayah, a duty discharged for the whole community once enough Muslims perform it.
2. The prayer is unusual in form. Worshippers stand throughout, with no bowing and no prostration, saying four takbirs with supplication for the dead between them.
3. Burial follows without a coffin where the law of the country allows. The body is laid on its right side facing Makkah, and the grave is raised only slightly above the ground.
4. Cremation is not practised. Muslims hold that the body is returned to the earth intact and handled with the dignity owed to it.
5. Mourning is limited to three days for most relatives, while a widow observes 'iddah for four months and ten days. Loud wailing and self-harm in grief are discouraged.
6. Later commemorations vary widely. Many South Asian families hold a chehlum on the fortieth day and Indonesian families hold tahlilan gatherings on set nights, while Salafi Muslims reject such gatherings as innovations.
7. Shi'ah Muslims also visit the graves of the imams and observe Arba'in forty days after Ashura, which ties private mourning to the memory of Husayn at Karbala.

Rites and the ummah

1. The rites bracket a life with the same sentence. The shahadah is whispered to the newborn and prompted to the dying, so the first and last words heard state the oneness of Allah.
2. Niyyah (intention) runs through all of them. The acts count as worship because they are done for Allah, not because the ceremony is elaborate.
3. Simplicity is a shared thread. The shroud, the low grave and the modest walimah all press against display, and scholars regularly criticise costly weddings and funerals.
4. Local custom, 'urf, supplies much of what a family actually does, and jurists have generally accepted it where it does not conflict with the shari'ah. A Nigerian, Bosnian and Malay wedding can therefore look entirely different while the nikah inside each is the same contract.
5. Minority communities adapt without losing the pattern, using coffins where the law demands them, negotiating burial plots and mortuary access, and running funeral funds that spread the cost across a congregation.
6. In each case the rite makes the ummah visible at household level, since neighbours wash the dead, witness the contract and share the 'aqiqah meat.