It is sad whenever I see or hear people celebrating or congratulating the people when someone dies in mosque while praying.
Many Muslims believe that it is sign of good ending whenever a Muslim dies in a mosque or while praying. This belief may be common but there is no justification in it. The Qur’an has not given such assurance in any verse and so also has the hadith not given any green light about its correctness.
Many deaths that have occured in the mosques or while in a state of salaat might have been prevented if the Muslims in such environment have paid more emphasis on empathy and humanity over liturgical glorification.
Although it is normal to be grateful that one dies while serving Almighty God compared to dying in a state or environment of committing sin.
However, this should be after striving to save such person’s from showing the sign of danger. In many cases, nobody attends to these people when they suffer an attack in the mosque until after the whole prayer is completed. Some Imams have died through this manner without getting first aid rescue. It is sad that many of these cases might have been prevented through CPR known as Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation, or mouth to mouth in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person who is in cardiac arrest. It is recommended for those who are unresponsive with no breathing or abnormal breathing, for example, agonal respirations.
While praying some Imams would suffer attack and the members would not pay attention to that but another person would just take lead of the prayer as the new Imam. It is until after the prayer that they attend to the victim. If we complain of negligence in hospitals and schools, we should also complain of the same in mosques as a result of misinformation.
MOSQUES should endeavour to train their members on CPR and giving first aid rescue. Whenever someone suffers an attack in the mosque some members should rush towards reviving him rather than trying to complete the prayer. We have the option of completing that prayer later or suspending it while allowing a party to complete it.
Hardly have I seen a first aid box in any mosque. This is sad because I have been to so many mosques home and abroad and I did not find any. It is a sign that we careless in valuing life in such environment. First aid boxes signify valuing of life. If we can teach people in schools and offices how to give first aid treatment to rescue and revive victims, we should be able to do same in the mosques in order to reduce many unfortunate incidents that might have been preventable through first aids and CPR training.
In as much as we value our devotion to Almighty God, we should also be proactive in saving lives. We can delay our prayer or suspend it and we will still have reward so long as we have good excuses but we cannot delay saving lives since we cannot get the lives back once lost or rescue delayed.
I hope people will understand the little I have said and won’t misinterpret it in anyway or see it as attack on faith and religion.
May Almighty Allah give us good ending and make Paradise of Firdaus our final Abode.
- Nurudeen Ibrahim is Executive Director of IRFAN CENTRE for Research and Human Development