Actor and singer Serkhan Keremoglu has sparked debate after having a grave prepared for himself during his lifetime and sharing footage of it on social media. While some saw it as preparation for death and an expression of thoughts about the transience of life, the religious aspect of the issue has also drawn interest.
Theologian Aga Hajibeyli told Globalinfo.az that every person should generally think about their afterlife, fate and the reckoning in the grave:
“However, the main issue is for a person to prepare themselves for the house of the grave. In this respect, a person should not defile their body or thoughts. In other words, they should know the worth, significance and value of humanity, and live accordingly. There is no example of any prophet having a grave dug for themselves, or placing a gravestone in advance, writing their date of birth on it and not writing their date of death.”
Aga Hajibeyli
A. Hajibeyli said the main purpose of the spiritual value Islam gives to human beings is to fill them with a love of life:
“In other words, it recommends doing good to people in this world, carrying out good deeds and, so to speak, serving God well — everything from worship to other positive acts. Secondly, it is not a major problem for a person to buy land in advance, nor is it a major concern to have a grave dug for themselves. But no source looks favourably on erecting a gravestone or writing inscriptions on it. Therefore, as I said, if people are preparing for death and the afterlife, they should try more to fill the life given to them with spiritual substance, rather than placing a stone or a bust on a grave. Even if you bury a person in the holiest place, if they pass away without earning God’s approval and having lived an impure life, they will stain both the land in which they are buried and the bust erected over their grave. But even if nothing large or ostentatious is placed over the most righteous person in the world, they are valuable, make the land in which they lie valuable, and their afterlife will also be valuable.”
Zaira Akifgizi
Globalinfo.az
