THE recent uproar surrounding the disturbing photographs of dead bodies unceremoniously lying on the floor of the chapel at Bedford Hospital has shocked us all, despite our daily exposure to death and bodies through the medium of television.

It is amazing how we have felt a collective shock and moral panic. Might our reaction have been different if the bodies had been put in body bags, rather than clumsily wrapped in white sheets and put on the floor?

I suspect the horror expressed by the general public is more to do with how we feel about death and the disposal of the dead.

Hospitals treat the living with care, the latest machinery and drugs but once life has ebbed away, treat the human remains as waste to be disposed of.

Moreover, as death is a regular occurrence in hospitals, it has lost the power to shock the hardened professionals.

Today we live a sanitised life where contact with the dead is very rare and except for very close members of the family, it is no more than turning up for the funeral.

However, it was not always like this even in England. Before the Second World War most people died at home and the body was prepared for viewing in the front room. People died at home because they could not afford the pre-NHS hospital fees.

In Islam the dead are treated with reverence and utmost care and it is essential for the dead body to be put in its final resting place underground as soon as possible, normally within 24 hours of death.

Nowadays with family members no longer likely to be in one place, or even one country, the funeral may be delayed to enable a close relative to take part.

As the grave is prepared, the body itself is bathed and then wrapped in a couple of plain white sheets and put on a bed, with an extra blanket or cover or in a coffin.

The funeral itself is a simple prayer led by an Imam and is often organised at a mosque or near the burial ground. The face is uncovered for brief periods for a final viewing, before the burial takes place in the two sheets with the face pointing towards Makkah.

The viewing of the face of a deceased is recommended so that those left behind are aware of their own final status. Most people in the West do not wish to see the face of a dead loved one, better to remember the person as they used to be, I suppose.

But I believe involvement with the final rites helps the process of grieving.

There are no special invitations to the funeral as it is incumbent upon every Muslim to take part in the funeral prayers.

I was amused and slightly saddened to read in the papers this week that while an old eccentric person was being buried in his own garden, one of his neighbours, being unaware that he had died, had come to the house to complain about the "party" noise.

As a society do we no longer know or care about a neighbour who has died?

Is it small wonder then how hospitals treat our dead, which then has the power to shock us all?