Page 166 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

The Islamic Basis of Society

chorus of both rows responds, singing, chanting and exclaiming, the
drums accompany the human voices; the enthusiasm of the per­
formers and the rhythm of the music may leave the beholder
spellbound.
In another ceremony, which is traditional for the same time in this
area, men gathered in a majlis lake turns reading aloud the
description of the birth of IheProphel Muhammad written in the 18th
century by ’Abdul Rahim al Barzanji. The reading culminates in a
prayer and exclamations, at which moment everybody, including the
women who have gathered behind the curtain wall to listen, rises to
their feet.
Burials
Simplicity and absence of pomp and ceremony also marked the
traditions for burial of the dead. The deceased was buried as soon as
possible, and certainly before sunset of the day he died. His body was
taken to the graveyard, which was recognisable only by the many
stones pointing up out of the ground, marking the head and foot of
each grave. Relatives and friends carried the body, which was
wrapped in a white cloth, to the grave, accompanied by only the male
mourners. Near the grave they would line up for a prayer, which in
the absence of a qadi ormutawwa' could be led by any respected man
in the group, and after the body was lowered into the grave it was
filled again with stones and sand and the head and footstone were
placed upright. After another prayer the mourners would disperse.
The wife and close female relatives might relieve their grief with a
few spontaneous wailing shouts, but otherwise the family accepted
the death of one of its members composedly as the very will of God,
being confident that the deceased would remain in the hands of God.
Pilgrimage (Hajj)
The pilgrimage to Mecca at least once during a lifetime is one of the
five obligations which a Muslim should endeavour to fulfil. But for
people living in the eastern parts of the Peninsula the hajj was an
extremely arduous and long journey, and on account of this not many
people undertook it in the days before motorisation.39 There were
various routes to Mecca: one could take a boat to Aden and then
another boat from there to Jiddah; or else one went by boat to Basra
and joined the Iraqi pilgrim caravan travelling on foot or by hired
camel all the way across Arabia. Towards the end of Shaikh Zayid
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