How does Islam consider death and the post-death rites?

 Once you're dead, it's over.

That is the Islamic position.

For the dead person, everything to do with this world and the people in it has ended.

People can only do things for one another while alive, or before death. After death, he is simply a dead man, and his matter is his own.

Islam prescribed only two things to be done for the dead, and nothing else.

Islamically, there is nothing that any priest, tantri, or minister must do or pray for the dead.

Even those two things are not individually obligatory. Both are prescribed only as communal obligations.

One: the prayer for the dead, to be performed only as a communal duty, without making it a burden on any one individual.

This funeral prayer is done without noise, without sound, without commotion, with no one hearing it, in congregation.

That means no one has any rituals or customs to perform for the dead with noise, uproar, and commotion.

There is nothing about the dead that God does not know, nothing He has forgotten, and no one needs to tell Him.

"Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Allah" (Quran)

"Nothing escapes Allah's knowledge" (Quran)

"Who is there that can intercede with Allah?" (Quran)

"Man has nothing except what he strives for (does)." (Quran)

"No bearer of burdens bears the burden of another." (Quran)

"Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it. Whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it." (Quran)

Unlike other prayers, this funeral prayer is done without prostration, and what is recited and prayed is not said aloud.

In doing and having it done so silently, Islam preserved a simple and mature model.

There is no need to shout out every prayer.

There is also no need to do or stage anything to ease the guilt of those who were with him while he lived and who have not died.

In ordinary Islamic prayer there is sujood, prostration.

Even so, Islam omitted prostration from the funeral prayer.

Why?

Because it insists that idol worship, personality cult, and polytheism must not enter, even by way of prostrating before a dead person.

In other words, this communally obligatory funeral prayer in Islam has no contrivances, entanglements, procedural rites, or priest.

Two: (as one human honors another) wash and clean the body, wrap it in cloth, and bury it. That is all.

In this burial too, there are no mandatory contrivances, entanglements, procedural rites, or priest.

Bury it six feet under the earth.

"Six feet" is only meant to indicate that it should be deep enough to ensure no one is troubled by nuisance or odor.

Burial has no other meaning or dimension in Islam.

It is between the dead person and God alone.

Those still living on earth have nothing significant to do for the dead.

"Only as communal obligations" means that society as a whole should take charge of the dead person and handle the matter.

That is, the dead should not become the burden and responsibility of the family alone.

That is the Islamic ruling on the very few, minor rites connected with death.

Another core of this ruling is that post-death rites are very simple and must in no way leave room for superstition.

It is stated with clarity and precision that the family, individual, or priest need not trouble themselves over the dead, and need not do anything in particular for them.

Once you're dead, it's over. All connection with this world has ended. That is stated plainly.

That is all Islam reminds us of, for those here and in relation to those here.

"When a human being dies, all his deeds come to an end except three:

1. his own good deeds,

2. lasting, continuing benefits he provided (charity),

3. righteous children (his offspring) who pray for him." (Hadith)

Others may grieve for the dead on a personal, heartfelt level.

But no program of rituals or performances to display that grief, or to make it go away, is permitted or prescribed by Islam.

There is no "third-day" rite, no fifteenth, no fortieth, no annual commemoration.

Islam has neither commanded nor recommended anything beyond those two things.

There is no priest in Islam to do anything for the dead, and none is needed.

There is no such thing as a priest between man and God in Islam.

Whether or not such a person exists, there is no priest who must do or pray anything in particular for the dead, and no rite or prayer for him to perform.

When someone dies, there is only the dead person and his deeds.

That is how simple Islam considers death to be.

That is why the post-death rites in Islam are just as simple.