Janazah

English

Etymology

From Arabic جَنَازَة (janāza, “funeral”).

Noun

Janazah (uncountable)

1. A Muslim funeral prayer, part of the Islamic funeral ritual.
   • 1875, Thomas D. Forsyth, Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873‎^[1], page 93:

     The janazah, or funeral-prayers, are repeated by the priest, the people around saying Amin or “Amen.”

   • 1993, A.H.M. Quasem, Essential Islamic Teachings‎^[2], page 51:

     This prayer is called Janazah prayer, It is offered in a standing position. […] The Janazah prayer is a collective obligation (Fard-Kifayah) on all the Muslims of the locality of the dead person.

2. A bier or a coffin used to transport and bury the body of a dead person.
   • 1883, H.V.P. Bronkhurst, The Colony of British Guyana and Its Labouring Population‎^[3], page 358:

     […] the whole are deposited in a very neat coffin — Janazah — garlanded with beautiful flowers, and covered over with a white (malmal) figured muslin.

   • 1894, Richard Burton, Leonard Smithers, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night‎^[4], volume 3, page 189:

     Here we differ: The Janázah with a lid is not a Badawi article: the wildlings use the simplest stretcher; and I would translate the lines: The son of woman, whatso his career / One day is borne upon the gibbous bier.