Saturday, September 13, 2008

Take Him Home.

Take him home to his mommy and daddy. Ship him home to his brothers and sisters and cousins and relatives and friends. He's all packed and ready to go. He's all packed and frozen. Stiff as a piece of wood, not laughing anymore like he used to. He's as dead as a dead man can be, and there's nothing I can do about it. I got nothing to do with him so don't ask me no questions about what else to do now that I've washed him up, and have performed Solat Jenazah for him with four other Muslims from Jordan and Iran.

Take him home to his final resting place in Sekinchan, Selangor. Maybe I go visit you one day. I hear Sekinchan is a nice place with big paddy fields for you to run free as a goat until the end of the horizon. According to schedule, you should be home Tuesday in time for your folks to buka puasa before they bury you.

Take him home to his mommy and daddy. Ship him out of here. He doesn't belong here anymore. If I had my way, I'd bury him here. If I had my way, I call up his mommy or daddy to say; your son is happy to die here, he's not coming home because it's no fun to fly home in a casket instead of as a breathing passenger dozing off on the business-class seat to enjoy the airline meals and to chat up pretty airlines hostesses who look even prettier this high up from the ground. If I had my way I'd bury him here so he can make friends with all the permanent residents of this cemetery comprising mostly Arabs who can teach him all the Arabic he can learn in a day since he's got all the time in the world to learn all the Arabic he wants.

Death is not a big deal. You live and you die. It's not a big deal where you are buried either. It's the same whether they dump you in the sea, or bury you up on top of a mountain, or in a quiet corner of Tanah Perkuburan Haji Yahya, Dungun. The Malaikat Maut has the same question for everyone. Death is good for you. So it's doesn't matter where you decide to do the dying.

Take him home to his mommy and daddy. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't make any difference. He's dead as a dead man can be. He's the same here or in Sekinchan. But he's got a mommy and a daddy who may want to do the crying for him for one last time. If you ask me, it's a waste of time.

3 Comments:

Blogger Pak Zawi said...

Bergen,
It is best that a body be buried as soon as possible. If he were to be one of my family member, I would allow him to be buried there.

9:46 PM  
Blogger Fauziah Ismail said...

Salam Bergen
I would have done the same as Pak Zawi's. I wouldn't wait for anyone also.

10:46 AM  
Blogger Bergen said...

Zawi: More and more people think this way. I think present generation has become less emotional about death. Maybe because they don't want to get involved with the preparations. But yes, it's true, I always believe you should be buried where you go down. Which why I don't understand why people insist on bringing the body home when a guy dies in Mecca.

Fauziah Ismail: I believe orang beriman wouldn't want to wait a second longer to be buried. He or she looks forward to death because his or her kubur is one of the taman-taman syurga. In contrast, the sinned wouldn't want to be buried because his kubur is one of the lubang neraka.

It's good that we think about death often.

4:00 PM  

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