If someone has died, start here

إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

“Indeed we belong to Allah, and to Him we shall return.”

Qur’an 2:156

You do not have to know what happens next. Two phone calls set everything in motion, and people who have done this many times take it from there.

If the death happened at home and was not expected

Call 911 first. Medics or the police will attend, and in an unexpected death the King County Medical Examiner may need to be involved before the body can be released. Once that is under way, call Evergreen Washelli on (206) 362-5200 and tell them the family is Muslim.

If the death happened in a hospital, hospice or care home

Tell the nursing staff that the family is Muslim, that burial is needed quickly, and that the body should not be embalmed. Ask them to hold the body until the funeral home collects it, and give them Evergreen Washelli’s name. Then call (206) 362-5200 yourself so they can begin. Where a medical examiner’s review is required by law it cannot be waived, but the funeral home will press for it to be done without delay.

If the death happened outside Washington, or abroad

Call the mosque on (206) 949-4099 before making arrangements. Repatriation and out-of-state transfer change the timeline considerably, and it is worth talking it through with someone before committing to anything.

Then call the mosque

Call (206) 949-4099 or email askus@idrismosque.com to arrange the janazah prayer and, if it is needed, the washing and shrouding. The same number reaches someone for emergency counseling when a death is expected or has just happened.

A Muslim funeral is short, plain and quick. There is no viewing, no embalming in the ordinary case, and no elaborate casket. That simplicity is deliberate.

Ghusl

The body is washed, by people of the same sex as the deceased. The mosque can arrange this, or the funeral home can.

Kafan

The body is wrapped in plain white cloth. Nothing is buried with it.

Salat al-janazah

The funeral prayer, prayed standing, usually straight after one of the five daily prayers at the mosque so that the congregation is already gathered. It takes a few minutes. Anyone may attend, including non-Muslims, who are welcome to stand at the side.

Burial

At the Islamic Cemetery Garden, Abbey View Memorial Park, 3601 Alaska Road, Brier, about twenty minutes north of the mosque. The body is buried facing Mecca, without a vault where the cemetery permits it.

Families often ask what to bring or wear. Ordinary modest clothing is right; nothing black is required. Flowers are not customary, and a family may prefer that money be given to the cemetery fund instead.

A grave in the Islamic Cemetery Garden is $5,000, with payment options. That figure is for the plot itself; the cemetery’s own opening and closing charges and the funeral director’s fees are separate, and Evergreen Washelli will set those out for you in writing.

The cemetery fund also provides graves for families who cannot afford one. If that is your situation, say so when you call. It is what the fund is for, and asking changes nothing about how you will be treated.

Grief does not end when the burial does, and the mosque does not consider its part finished either.

Islamic counseling is available to the family through the mosque, by appointment and in confidence. For a death that has just happened or is expected, call (206) 949-4099 at any hour rather than waiting for office times.

If you are the friend rather than the family: the customary thing to say is إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون — “we belong to Allah and to Him we return” — and the customary thing to do is bring food for the household for the first few days. Visiting is welcome. Long condolence gatherings are not expected.