A Fulani Christian's Body and Soul

“No one will bury you when you die.”

That’s what Ibrahim’s neighbors told him when he refused to return to Islam.  For Ibrahim (not his real name), an almost-blind 70- year-old man who is the only follower of Jesus in his West African village, that is a serious threat.

“Who will bury me?” is a major barrier for nomadic Fulani Muslims who are thinking about leaving Islam to follow Jesus.

“Fulani seldom mark graves in any permanent way,” said a Christian Reformed World Missions missionary who knows Ibrahim.

“But the burial ceremony is very important to them. When someone dies, relatives and neighbors properly wash and clothe the body and bury it in the prescribed Muslim way.”

So when Ibrahim’s neighbors told him that nobody would bury him when he died, they were amazed by his response.

“You can pull my body out into the bush for the hyenas, just like you’d do with a dead donkey.  My soul will be long gone with Jesus after this body no longer lives.”

Even the missionaries, who come from a culture where cremation and medical study of cadavers is common, were surprised by this answer.

They said his attitude reflects his confidence in his relationship with Jesus—a relationship that they have seen him develop over the last 15 years.

“Assurance of salvation is something that he has, but that his Muslim relatives don’t,” said the missionaries. “They are counting on their good deeds but they can never know whether they have done enough. 

“What goes through their minds when Ibrahim shows such confidence in his eternal destiny?”