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Muslims mourn loved ones online
By Anwar ul-Hasan
BBC Urdu Online
Graveside technology has hit Pakistan
“Our graveyard is so pretty that it is to die for,” said Syed Mohammed Alam Zaidi, caretaker of the Wadi-a-Hussain cemetery near the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.
“It sprawls an area of 12 acres, and we have capacity for 57,000 graves which is enough for the next 100 years.”
But this final resting place has more than just beautiful facilities and lots of space to offer.
It also provides an interactive website - the first in Pakistan - enabling a mourner to attend the funeral of a loved one virtually. Live or recorded video streaming can be accessed using an internet terminal anywhere in the world.
The wonders of modern technology allow friends and families not able to visit the graveyard in person the opportunity to see this otherwise typical Muslim cemetery, with its rose petals, incense sticks and candles.
Allah is not dependent on the internet… but if someone needs a point of focus then there is no harm using the picture of a grave
Faiz Siddiqi
Muslim scholar
Mourning online - your views
The technology does not stop at funerals via video streaming. The interactive website has a grave search engine, where it is possible to find graves by name or allotment number.
Once the search is done, a mourner can have all the details of the deceased including a picture of the grave.
“And then”, says Mr Zaidi the caretaker, “one can offer ‘Fateha’ - a religious offering usually read in front of the grave.”
‘Criminals and addicts’
The virtual cemetery idea was developed in 1999 with the financial support of two brothers, Shaikh Sakhawat Ali and Shaikh Yawar Ali. Now this facility is managed by a trust.
The cemetery is better managed than state-run graveyards, say its owners
“In Karachi most of the state-run graveyards are badly managed or used by criminals and drug addicts. That is precisely the reason why security and illumination are among our top priorities,” says Mr Zaidi.
All over the world, other religions offer high-tech funeral facilities but Wadi-a-Hussain is among the first virtual graveyards used by Muslims, who appear to have “faithfully” embraced the new digital technology in more ways than one.
Zeshan Haider, a student of King’s College, London, has a grandmother buried in Wadi-a-Hussain, and says it is well run.
“I am happy to know that if my great-grandchildren would like to go visit my grandmother’s grave, there won’t be someone else buried there,” he told the BBC.
Barrister Faiz Siddiqi, a Muslim scholar and principal of the Hijaz Islamic Collage, Nuneaton, UK, takes a more circumspect view.
There is no precedent for this kind of thing in Islam and it’s completely outrageous
Abdullah, Lahore
“Allah is not dependent on the internet to accept our homage to the dead,” he said, "but if someone needs a point of focus then there is no harm using the picture of a grave to offer Fateha. "In Islam we do have the concept of funeral prayers offered by people who are absent, in the same way as they did in Yasser Arafat’s case.
“Those attending virtually will be able to offer Gaibana Namaz-e-Janaza [funeral prayers in absence] - but it has to be said that nothing beats being there to say prayers in person.”
‘Thank you’
Despite all the latest facilities, the price for an individual grave at Wadi-a-Hussain is competitive at around $75 (5,000 rupees). This price includes glazed tiles and an epitaph with writing.
For about $20 more, it is possible to access web video streaming on demand.
“Yesterday’s science fiction is today’s everyday practice,” said Ghayyas Uddin Siddiqi, chairman of the Muslim Parliament of Britain. "We have learnt this much from history.
Funerals available on computers have stirred up controversy
“At present some of us might feel a bit odd but I’m sure we will become more familiar using modern technology in these sort of things, as in other areas of life.”
The virtual graveyard provoked contrasting responses from readers who wrote to the BBC to comment when news of its use first emerged on the BBC Urdu website.
“There is no precedent for this kind of thing in Islam and it’s completely outrageous,” said Abdullah in Lahore.
Others had no problem with using new technology - they argued that mosques were already using loud speakers to broadcast their message.
Adnan in the US said online cemeteries would be a great help to those living far away.
“I live in a foreign country, so I know that some people have to spend huge sums of money to buy last-minute plane tickets to see their loved ones for the last time,” he said.
“In some cases people can’t even travel because they’re students or have immigration difficulties, and for them it’s very good news. I would like to thank the people who started it.”
