Despite the significant loss, Islam recognizes that the affected should accept the reality and stand in faith. Therefore, this shows that like Christianity, Islam also recognizes the importance of faith during the grieving process (Mitsch & Brookside, 2004)
However, grief is considered a normal process in relation to the loss, lengthened and/or severe grief complicates the health of the affected. As such, several theorists, including Kubler Ross analyzed the grieving process to create understanding and the ways of managing the symptoms faced by the affected (O'Connor, 2007)
He is presented as righteous and wise, thereby, has the abilities to recognize all the upcoming events likely to affect him. For example, losing his property does not surprise him and takes two weeks to mourn with his friends, but not in denial state (Shapiro, 1994)
Grief is often magnified when it involves more than one of these losses. In the biblical story of Job, the protagonist lost virtually everything, his family, amicable relationships with his friends, his home and sources of wealth, and even his health (Kroll, 2012)
Therefore, this story is extremely suitable for an examination of the five stages of grieving as denoted by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. There are a number of parallels between Job's emotions and actions during this austere test of God's design and the five stages of grieving that the author explains, which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (Kubler-Ross, 1997)
In this particular religion, the death of certain individuals is a cause for rejoicing. Within the play a king of a particular tribe dies, and the religious ritual that accompanies this death is that the first born son is supposed to kill himself to look after the king in heaven (Soyinka, 1990)
Conversely, America's prioritization of the values choice, autonomy, and individualization has impacted its view of death, despite the fact that death is an inevitable process over which there is often little control. It is important not to judge the intensity of a person's grief based upon their apparent reactions to death, especially if that person comes from a different culture: "Researchers have found greater outward expression of grief and more physiologic reactions among Mexican-American college students compared to Anglo college students and greater grief intensity among Latinos from Puerto Rico who experienced a sudden unexpected death than other Latinos and Anglos…[However, there were no] differences in bereavement for White, Black, and Hispanic adult children whose parent died from cancer" (Lobar et al
Many experts believe that children can be taught about death during situations such as these, so that when it happens to a parent or sibling, they are better able to cope with the loss. One writer quotes a psychiatrist, saying, "She says it is important for parents to take advantage of these opportunities for education when the family is not in the midst of a crisis" (Hunker, 1997, p
Dr. Kubler-Ross notes, "In contrast to the stage of denial, this stage of anger is very difficult to cope with from the point-of-view of family and staff" (Kubler-Ross, 1989, p
Many people may not want the patient to die, because they believe there will be a miracle or a cure. Another writer notes, "Yet, not infrequently, I've heard family members say that they need to keep a dying loved one alive long enough 'for God to perform a miracle'" (Lustig, 2003, p
They are not happy with the outcome, but they know there is no other solution. It is interesting to note that Kubler-Ross came to these conclusions after interviewing numerous patients (Romulo, 2004)
He writes, "As Dr. Sherwin Nuland suggests, 'We live today in the era not of the art of dying, but of the art of saving life, and the dilemmas in that are multitudinous'" (Sexton, 1997)
'Oh, we have to get the ethics committee together,' and all this crap. I had a living will and they wanted to talk about ethics, okay?" (Tercel, 2001)
Bargaining begins when the person converses with God and tries to stop doing something evil in order for more good to happen in his life. (Torrey, 2011) Lastly, we see the depression stage in which the person is sad, angry and very tired of the situation
In this second story, readers are treated to the relationships between bereaved father and his children, between an elderly man and a white dog who mysteriously shows up. It is interesting to note that author Terry Kay, in an interview (Summer, 1994) with Publishers Weekly, reports that "Yes, the white dog was absolutely real
It must be noted that not everyone experiences the various stages of bereavement at the same time and in the same order as will be indicated below, however, most bereaved people are observed to go through the following main stages; denial, anger, Bargaining, depression and acceptance. It was Elizabeth Kubler who in 1969 in her book "On Death and Dying" gave a comprehensive approach and observation to normal grieving and thereafter paved way for other psychologists to reproduce several other materials on the same subject (Axelrod J., 2013)
He realizes God through the light of looking forward to the promise that God has given of a resurrection. He sees how Christ loves those who mourn and this gives him support in that he is doing right by grieving openly (Merrill, 2004)
This is the power of faith, that it can keep him moving even under such a burdensome and crushing incident as the death of a much loved son. The five stages that Wolterstorff deals with, according to the Kubler-Ross model, are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance (and it is this latter stage that is signified in Wolterstorff's "owning" of the death) (Patricelli, 2015)
He sees how Christ loves those who mourn and this gives him support in that he is doing right by grieving openly (Merrill, 2004). It is a comfort that God loves those who grief, because it is a sign that they also loved life (Sheen, 2008)
A growing body of evidence confirms that CBT therapy has proven efficacy in helping parents cope with the grief associated with their loss of a child (Hoffman, 2012). Moreover, CBT therapy has been used by clinicians in other countries including Germany with good effect (David, 2007)