This page groups rituals by whether performing them is a required duty or a voluntary devotion. Wikipedia notes that "for daily prayers, practicing Muslims must perform a ritual recitation from the Quran in Arabic while bowing and prostrating." Browsing this way lets a visitor separate a mandatory rite from one an adherent may choose to observe or not.
Facts
Overview
What Defines This GroupingRites performed at and after a death - preparation of the body, disposal by burial or cremation, and the observances kept for a fixed period afterwards. Nearly every tradition marks death by rite, but the rites answer different problems: the fate of the dead, the pollution of the living, the obligations of descendants, and the ordering of grief. 2 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryA standard analytic category in the study of religion 2 Learn More
The funerary rituals
This group gathers funerary rituals, the rites surrounding death, the care of the body, and the passage of the dead: burial and cremation, mourning, and the ceremonies that ease or guide the deceased into the afterlife. A tradition's treatment of death reveals much of its view of the soul and the world beyond.
The browser will find funerary rituals from across the traditions. The entries describe each rite's form and meaning, noting the beliefs about death and the afterlife that shape it.
Obligation
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. Funeral RitesView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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