Dato'Keramat - Muslim Cemetery

This morning I found out that one of my childhood friend's brother had passed away and so I visited their home to pay my respects. As always you meet some old friends at theses events which in a way is nice.Here the deceased is about to leave the house and is being given the last rights which is in the form of reading the AlFatehah three times according every single step taken out of the door.

The body is then loaded into the funeral van and ready to make its journey towards the cemetery , however before that ti will first head for the mosque for the final prayer which usually at Zohor or afternoon prayer.

Your life feels different on you, once you greet death and understand your heart's position. You wear your life like a garment from the mission bundle sale ever after -- lightly because you realize you never paid nothing for it, cherishing because you know you won't ever come by such a bargain again.

- Louise Erdrich 

The words above means Funeral Vehicle (The Hearse) in which the body is being transported to the cemetery and usually accompanied by the deceased children.

The body is taken into the Mosques where it is given the final prayer immediately after the afternoon prayer, a special prayer is being performed for the deceased. It is the Muslim belief that the dead is still among us while the preperation for his or her burial is being carried out.

The Dato'Keramat Muslim Cemetery in Penang is one of the most overly populated cemetery in the country as most Muslims in Penang ar at least those living in and around Georgetown would prefer to be buried here when they die, myself included. There is no doubt that most of the graves here have been overlapped with multiple deceased bodies from lack of space in the whole place. However priority to the actual location is given such the body lays to rest among its kith and kin.

From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.

- Thomas Moore 

\Having arrived early at the grave i decided to start taking some pictures as i have always been fascinated by graveyards. I think it is the most peaceful and not to mention beautiful place in any place in the world. While living in Sendai I usaed to visit the Japanese burial grounds with my sketchbooks and i did some interesting sketches of these places. An uncanny thing happened when I approached to take a shot of the actual hole where the body will be placed. The picture below was the last i could take for when I was trying to take the grave hole itself my camera gave up on me! It shuts down with the low battery lights on I tried to squeeze the last critical shot but it would not do it. So I apologized and quietly slipped away from the gaping hole in the ground.

It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross 

Unto God, the Lord belong the issues of death.

---Psalm 68:20 

A friend giving a hand at burying another .

One regret dear world, that I am determined not to have when I am lying on my deathbed is that I did not kiss you enough.

- Hafiz of Persia

Laying to rest among the gravestones of past residents how many had been buried in th e same spot God only knows.

The final resting place is set with the last load of soil being shoveled into place and  saplings being planted to  shade the grave from the hot sun.

Sending off the dead with the last rites and prayers to accompany him into the other world where another life begins.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

- Steve Jobs