England: Slough Mosque offers free funeral service for Muslim community

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A Slough (Town in England) mosque has started offering free funeral services for the town's Muslim community.

Faizan e Madina made the decision to ease the pain and suffering Muslims have felt during the coronavirus pandemic, with many losing loved ones, losing jobs and being unable to pay funeral expenses.

Volunteer Waqas Attari, 33, who is also on the management team, said: "We wanted to provide ease for the Muslim community especially for people who have lost loved ones. Lots of people have lost jobs so they don't have the finances to pay for a janazah (Islamic funeral prayer) so we wanted to help them with that.

"We're working with Dawat-e-Islami who runs this mosque and we're doing this throughout the country, offering it free of cost to make it easier for families."

The service includes giving ghusal, shrouding the body, holding the body of the deceased until the burial and holding the funeral prayer.

The mosque, on Cheviot Road, has said it will be done in line with the Qur'an and Sunnah and carried out by trained professionals who will be following Covid-19 regulations put in place by the Government.

Waqas added: "We thought about people having to pay and it's not appropriate for people to pay to see their dead relatives. We have a group of volunteers who wash the body free of charge and are fully trained and use PPE."

It comes after families were told they would be charged £40 to watch their relative or friend's funeral online if they can't attend in person at the chapel at Slough cemetery.




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