We had a death in the family a couple days ago. No one close, but not that far (grandfathers uncles something or other). I went and attended the burial, and then also stood at the A’azza. It was a great experience showing the the real benifit of this type of cultural/religous event, for it was about family and friends. Being there I met so many other cousins of mine that I didn’t know about and really had no idea existed. I even met one who has the same name as me. I kept hearing about him existing but never met him.

At the end of it all we made a nice list of all the family members with there phone numbers to create a database for us all so we can keep track of each other, and also know who to invite for other family functions.

I and others have complained about the A’azza approach and how really it is time consuming and tiring, yet we forgot so quickly the real purpose of it. It is to bring people together even at death.