Covid-19 pandemic has affected many facets of life. It has interrupted work, daily routines, gatherings with family and friends and much of the usual hustle and bustle of life. It has also affected matters of death, and how we honour the rights of our departed loved ones in this time.

For Muslim communities , the latter has been particularly challenging, though they have been able to make adjustments accordingly.

Muslim funeral rites are relatively straightforward, and quick compared to many other religious traditions. The departed is washed in accordance with Islamic traditions; prayers are recited over the body, which is then buried. This usually takes place within a day of death.

In a time of pandemic, when the death toll has overtaken the ability of funeral parlours to cope, those parlours in the West which specialise in Muslim funerals have been finding it particularly challenging.