Day 2 : Trip to His Grave

29 October 2016

We got ready at 7 am in the morning to have breakfast. We were going to the graves that day; Tokbah’s, Tok Itam’s and Tok Su’s. They were all buried in the same graveyard, so why not visit all of them?

                It rained last night at the graveyard. The red soil was moist and ended up sticking at the sole of our shoes. Some of the soil on the graves were sunken due to the rainwater. But Tokbah’s grave still had that white canopy above it from the day he was buried, so his grave was not so affected. The tombstone which is written KD 2*** was still standing firm on the soil.

Ibu searched for the adab of visiting graves while in the journey. The adab includes, sitting or standing facing the jenazah. The jenazah is buried facing the direction of the qiblah and on his right side. So, we stood on the left side of the grave. We only recited some dua for Tokbah. Other than that, it is forbidden to build any structures on the grave, but there are a lot of graves that had cemented structures and sometimes polished wooden structures on it. I didn’t know much about the adab or sunnah of visiting graves, so that was a new section of knowledge that I need to learn about.

 I also saw a few other families came to visit other graves as well; some were reciting Yasin, some were trimming the grass on the graves. The environment there was very quiet and peaceful with the cool lingering morning mist.  The graveyard workers were trimming the grass, and spraying water on the graves. Their skin was tanned perhaps, due to their hours under the sun. There were many ‘designs’ of graves; some with stone and wooden structures. Some even have a pinkish colour because it is a girl’s grave. Some have small trees with white flowers on the grave, some just rotting flower petals ‘spread’ on it. The family could also order stone stools to be put near the grave so that visitors can sit on them.

After that, we went to visit Tok Su’s grave. At first, we went to the wrong lot because we were given the wrong lot number. But it turned out to be the lot next to the wrong one. Tok Su didn’t marry and didn’t have a biological child of her own. Weeds had grown on her grave, the grass that covers the top soil was already thick. We had to ‘trim’ and pull out some weeds to be able to see her name on the simple white carved stone and to make it much neater. Then, we went to Tok Itam’s grave which was on the upper part of the graveyard.

At that area, there were children’s graves too, separated from the adults’. Their graves were small and very close to one another. So, we had to be careful not to step on one of those tiny graves. Seeing those tiny packed graves really made me feel more grateful of life. Some souls didn’t even have the chance to live more than a day, some seem to had been forgotten. There are graves with no name or date of birth and death and weeds grew wildly on them. But I’m sure the ones who organise the graveyard have their records.

Many people had died, left this deceiving dunya and moving on to alam barzakh. All those worldly things; money, looks, social status etc don’t matter anymore. All that matters is, how much  we have done to please Allah.  

*Sorry if my English is a little bit rusty, it has been a while since last write narrative stuff.