JEDDAH, 9 May 2007 — People attending funerals nowadays make the mistake of thinking they have turned up at a glossy wedding. With waiters dressed in bow ties serving non-alcoholic cocktails at fancy venues, many Saudis express shock and horror at the modern and extravagant funerals prevalent in certain strata of society that have replaced the solemn and simple ones of bygone days.

“I attended a funeral of a friend who died recently. I arrived at the location, which turned out to be a huge and magnificent pavilion with fancily dressed waiters in uniforms serving people drinks and snacks. I was amazed,” said Abdullah Hashim, adding that the dead man’s family had paid a company to arrange the venue, waiters, food, drink and decorations.

Nasser Al-Hamdi, a Jeddah resident, expressed surprise about the extravagance shown at funerals adding that he felt people were now comparing funerals to weddings in opulence. “It’s okay for the family of the dead to ask relatives and neighbors to help them organize funerals, but they shouldn’t take it to this extreme. This is too much,” he said, adding that ostentation was against the ethos of Islam.

“Showing off is not OK even at wedding ceremonies let alone at funerals. I’ve attended funerals that I will never forget. Two months ago I was invited to the funeral of a cousin, which was held at a five-star hotel,” he added.

Fatima Al-Muhammadi, a Jeddah resident, said she recently attended a funeral that felt more like a lavish wedding. “My husband and I had to go to a funeral of a friend. We were given the directions of the venue and when we reached there we thought we had arrived at the wrong place. We thought we had arrived at a wedding. To our surprise we hadn’t,” she said.

“There were two fancy pavilions, one for men and another women. They were fancily decorated just like a wedding hall. When I went to the women’s section, I saw female waiters, who had been brought in from a five-star hotel and were dressed in fancy uniforms,” she said.

Commenting on these types of funerals, Waleed Al-Utaibi said such extravagance is against the way funerals should be held in Islam. “This phenomenon is something that has started to appear everywhere. Many people have started to compete with each other and now it looks like there will be specialized funeral catering companies to deal with all this. Who knows? May be there will soon be people to wail and shed crocodile tears,” said Al-Utaibi.

“We have to go back to Islam. Islam asks us not to be ostentatious and lavish at weddings, forget about funerals,” added Al-Muhammadi. “These people seem to be oblivious about Islam. Some are just driven by their egos.”

Zainab Al-Harbi, a specialist in Islamic studies, calls for people to be moderate in their spending. “Islam has asked us to be moderate in how we spend. Islam has also asked us not to show off at weddings. Why do people then spend lavishly at funerals? We have to return to Islam and apply its principles into our everyday life,” she said.

She added that a friend of hers told her about a family who arranged for a three-day funeral at a five-star hotel in Jeddah. “They even celebrate the death anniversary on the same day each year at the same hotel. It’s crazy. This is against Islam. We must pray for our dead and donate to the poor instead of spending on funeral ceremonies,” she said.

Muhammad Al-Nijami, a member of the Fiqh Council, said: “We’re now seeing new and strange things in society. People are holding funerals at lavish pavilions and rented halls as if they are celebrating the event. People need to return to Islamic principles. It isn’t forbidden to ask for the help of others, but this must not turn into something that people end up boasting about.”