Bereavement Guidance
What to Do When a Death Occurs
A death brings a great deal to attend to at once, much of it unfamiliar. This page sets out the order to do things in: what genuinely cannot wait, what can, and the few things worth not doing. Take it at whatever pace your family needs.
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un
Surely we belong to Allah, and to Him we return
If You Need Someone Now
The Society's bereavement lines are 07789 914229 and 07903 087256. Both take WhatsApp messages. Available Monday to Sunday, 8am to 9pm.
The Society is not yet registered and cannot provide assistance or take a bereavement report at this stage. The numbers are answered for information, and the guidance on this page holds either way.
The Order of Things
The First Day
These four come first, and broadly in this order. Everything else on this page can follow them.
Obtain Confirmation of the Death
Medical or official confirmation of death is the document everything else depends on — the funeral arrangements, and later any application to the Society. Nothing can proceed far without it.
Contact a Funeral Director or Mosque
An appropriate Muslim funeral director, mosque or local burial service. Islamic burials are normally arranged promptly, so this is the step most worth making early.
Inform the Next of Kin and Close Family
The registered next of kin in particular, who may need to act on the family's behalf and whose details the Society holds.
Notify the Society
Once the Society is registered and operating, this is where it would be told. Until then it cannot act on a notification, and the step is here so the order is right when it can.
Do and Do Not
The Things Most Worth Getting Right
Short lists, because they matter more than their length suggests. The items on the right are the ones that are difficult to undo.
Do
- Keep every invoice, estimate and receipt from the funeral provider, from the start. They are the evidence any later application rests on.
- Keep identity documents for the person who has died and for whoever will deal with the Society, together and to hand.
- Make the arrangements your family needs, on the timescale your faith and your funeral director require.
- Ask the Society if something is unclear. A question costs nothing and a misunderstanding can cost a great deal.
- Tell the Society promptly if circumstances change, or if a document you expected cannot be obtained.
Do Not
- Do not delay urgent funeral arrangements while you wait for a funding decision. The family remains responsible for making the arrangements, and a burial should not wait on paperwork.
- Do not discard receipts, estimates or correspondence, even ones that look unimportant at the time.
- Do not assume a missing document ends the matter. It does not; the Society will say what is needed and allow a reasonable opportunity to provide it.
- Do not wait until everything is gathered before making contact. First contact does not need a complete file.
Next
Where the Detail Is
This page is the shape of it. The detail lives on two other pages, so that it is written down once and stays correct in one place.
- Bereavement Guidance — the tickable first-day list, the documents to have ready, what happens after a notification, and how to appeal a decision
- Funeral Assistance — what the assistance is, what it is not, the evidence required and the exclusions
- Frequently Asked Questions — the questions families ask most often