Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/213

 192 Nakír examine the deceased as to his faith. After this, food is distributed to beggars and religious mendicants as a propitiatory offering to God, in the name of the deceased person.

If the grave be for the body of a woman, it should be to the height of a man's chest, if for a man, to the height of the waist. At the bottom of the grave the recess is made on the side to receive the corpse, which is called the láhad. The dead are seldom interred in coffins, although they are not prohibited.

To build tombs with stones or burnt bricks, or to write a verse of the Qurán upon them, is forbidden in the Hadís; but largest one and brick tombs are common to all Muhammadan countries, and very frequently they bear inscriptions.

On the third day after the burial of the dead, it is usual for the relatives to visit the grave, and to recite selections from the Qurán. Those who can afford to pay Maulavís, employ these learned men to recite the whole of the Qurán at the graves of their deceased relatives; and,