BURIAL CEREMONY: A WASTE

By -


"I cannot lose my mother and lose my money." (Dr Tai Solarin)

I have had learned friends debate this subject-matter. None has been able to adduce rational reasons for throwing outlandish parties at the demise of an aged person. I once took on an uncle and his response was utterly mockable.

"There is no doubt that you have told the truth. Burial ceremony is a waste of resources. But what people will say is my concern. They will make jest of us and tag us irresponsible children," he said.

Still, that wasn't rational. Perhaps someone reading this piece will take me on and my conviction changed.

I hope someone is not deliberately misconstruing this message. Burial is different from burial ceremony. Burial is to take care of the remains of the deceased. For a dead muslim, as reliably confirmed by a medical pundit, without any delay, the body is ritually bathed, properly wrapped, patiently prayed unto in rows by brethren and befittingly buried. Mourning is done for only three days, and the deceased enjoys unendingly repeated charity in his name. Debts incurred by him are swiftly cleared off; after which its property are shared among heirs.

Burial with ceremony is what is considered a waste of hard-earned resources. What exactly is it meant for? Money that should be earmarked for crucial endeavours, such as empowering the youth within the family to further bond the circle, is squandered on mere burial ceremony.

As far as I know, the least expenditure on any packaged burial ceremony is half a million naira. That is enough a good capital to make an indigent youth start up a lucrative business. What about those who lavishly expend millions? Egregiously, that is a wicked denial of persons who would have become millionaires with such thrown-away monetary resource.



Author: Kay Yusuf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE UNDERRATED DOMAINS

By -
Image
I have been mulling over this article for some months now, but never quite got round to writing it. However, that today is the day set aside for the celebration of teachers has given me the right push to get right down to it. I know that some of my respected colleagues will be throwing around articles, quotes and slogans eulogizing teachers, so let me make a departure from that norm, discuss our problems and suggest ways we can rise above our collective mediocrity. It was Benjamin Bloom in 1956 who came up with the well known (at least to teachers) taxonomy of educational objectives. According to him, learning outcomes of every lesson should aim to impact three domains: the cognitive, the psychomotor and the affective. I find this quite apt but lest I lose some of my none-educationist readers, I will break down the terms in plain language. The cognitive domain here refers to what learners should know at the end of the lesson and the chief organ for this domain is the brain. The psy...
Read more

HE PROSTRATED IN UNIFORM

By -
Image
I alighted from a tricycle, patronized a motorcyclist on the other side of the road to further the crucial trip. Less than two minutes into the zoom, we encountered a road block actuated by some dark men in dark attire. “Where is our money?” one of them cried out. “Officer, I paid to the batch that was here earlier this morning, sir,” responded the biker. Like a famished, frenzied tout, he roared: “Give us our money joooo!” The biker begged on, rather than do the wish of the weird wizard. Not happy with the polite insistence, the dark-hearted avarice turned to me: “Come down, you!” While I pleaded on behalf of the helpless poor rider, the attired lunatic forcefully pushed the bike and we both staggered east, west. Thank God my belly had been filled to its fill before setting out that morning. If not, I could have found my head on the ground and my legs towards the sky. Angered by the derangement of the draconian policeman, I walked up to him: “What reason have you to treat us as su...
Read more

YOUR WOMAN: A HALF-PART, NOT A SPARE-PART.

By -
Image
While in a taxi returning home after the day's work, the driver tuned the radio to a station where issues about husbands assisting their wives were discussed. Thinking aloud, an elderly woman said she would disown a son found giving a helping hand to his wife in house chores. A heat debate, therefore, ensued among the passengers. All but the driver faulted the woman's submission. I honestly never believed that such could be uttered by a woman. I could not but wade in to have my opinion launched. I tried making her reason rationally, but she was rather hell bent. I couldn't believe my ears. I have got no doubt that many a man today has a similar ideology with the woman whose example was afore-cited. Wives are partners in progress, not slaves. They are half parts of their partner-husbands, not spare parts. It is no big deal to assist women in their domestic duties. This increases the bond between spouses. It makes the wife love the husband the more. It is equally a way of...
Read more