Some religious rituals have taken a deeper root in our Bengali Muslim culture than the others. Despite aggression of Wahhabi traits and anti- Sufi onslaught, two rituals, Kulkhani – a Sufi tradition and Chehlam- A Shi’ite tradition have remained strongly ingrained in Bengali Muslim psych. When someone dies in this society, the survivors and the society feel extremely passionate to conduct these two rituals for the salvation of the soul of the departed and to be able to end the formal mourning and move on.
