Funerals (Kitab Al-Jana'iz)

كتاب الجنائز

Chapter 1: Sickness Which Expiate For Sins

Narrated Amir ar-Ram

We were in our country when flags and banners were raised. I said: What is this?

The (the people) said: This is the banner of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). So I came to him. He was (sitting) under a tree. A sheet of cloth was spread for him and he was sitting on it. His Companions were gathered around him. I sat with them.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) mentioned illness and said: When a believer is afflicted by illness and Allah cures him of it, it serves as an atonement for his previous sins and a warning to him for the future.

But when a hypocrite becomes ill and is then cured, he is like a camel which has been tethered and then let loose by its owners, but does not know why they tethered it and why they let it loose.

A man from among those around him asked: Messenger of Allah, what are illnesses? I swear by Allah, I never fell ill.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Get up and leave us. You do not belong to our number. When we were with him, a man came to him. He had a sheet of cloth and something in his hand.

He turned his attention to him and said: Messenger of Allah, when I saw you, I turned towards you. I saw a group of trees and heard the sound of fledglings. I took them and put them in my garment. Their mother then came and began to hover round my head. I showed them to her, and she fell on them. I wrapped them with my garment. They are now with me.

He said: Put them away from you. So I put them away, but their mother stayed with them.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to his companions: Are you surprised at the affection of the mother for her young?

They said: Yes, Messenger of Allah. He said: I swear by Him Who has sent me with the Truth, Allah is more affectionate to His servants than a mother to her young ones. Take them back put them and where you took them from when their mother should have been with them. So he took them back.

Narrated Muhammad ibn Khalid as-Sulami

on his father's authority said his grandfather reported: He was a Companion of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: When Allah has previously decreed for a servant a rank which he has not attained by his action, He afflicts him in his body, or his property or his children.

Abu Dawud said: Ibn Nufail added in his version: "He then enables him to endure that." The agreed version goes: "So that He may bring him to the rank previously decreed from him by Allah."

Chapter 2: If A Man Used To Do A Righteous Deed Then Is Interrupted By Sickness Or Travel

Narrated Abu Musa

I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) many times say: When a servant of Allah is accustomed to do a good work, then becomes ill or goes on journey, what was accustomed to do when he was well and staying at home will be recorded for him.

Chapter 3: Visiting Sick Women

Narrated Umm al-Ala

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) visited me while I was sick. He said: Be glad, Umm al-Ala' for Allah removes the sins of a Muslim for his illness as fire removes the dross of gold and silver.

Narrated 'Aishah

I said: Messenger of Allah, I know the severest verse in the Qur'an. He asked: What is that verse. A'ishah? She replied: Allah's words: "If anyone does evil, he will be requited for it." He said: Do you know A'ishah, that when a believer is afflicted with a calamity or a thorn, it serves as an atonement for his evil deed. He who is called to account will be punished. She said: Does Allah not say: "He truly will recieve an easy reckoning." He said: This is the presentation, A'ishah. If anyone criticized in reckoning, he will be punished.

Abu Dawud said: This is the version of Ibn Bashshar. He said: Ibn Abi Mulaikah narrated to us.

Chapter 4: Visiting The Sick

Narrated Usamah b. Zaid

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) went out to visit 'Abd Allah b. Ubayy during his illness of which he died. When he entered upon him, he realised death on him. He said: I used to forbid you from the love of Jews. He ('Abd Allah) said: As'ad b. Zurarah hated them. So what (the benefited) ? When he died, his son came and said: Prophet of Allah, 'Abd Allah b. Ubayy has died, give me your shirt, so that I shroud him in it. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) took off his shirt and gave it to him.

Chapter 5: Visiting A Sick Dhimmi

Narrated Anas

A young Jew became ill. The Prophet (ﷺ) went to visit him. He sat down by his head and said to him: Accept Islam. He looked at his father who was beside him near his head, and he said: Obey Abu al-Qasim. So he accepted Islam, and the Prophet (ﷺ) stood up saying: Praise be to Allah Who has saved him through me from Hell.

Chapter 6: Going On Foot To Visit The Sick

Narrated Jabir

The Prophet (ﷺ) would visit me (during my illness) riding neither a mule nor a pony.

Chapter 7: Virtue Of Visiting The Sick While In A State Of Wudu'

Narrated Anas ibn Malik

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If anyone performs ablution well and pays a visit to his (sick) Muslim brother seeking his reward from Allah, he will be removed a distance of seventy years (kharif) from Hell. I asked: What is kharif, Abu Hamzah? He replied: A year.

Abu Dawud said: Only the people of Basrah have narrated the tradition on visiting the sick after performing ablution.

Narrated 'Ali

If a man visits a patient in the evening, seventy thousand angels come along with him seeking forgiveness from Allah for him till the morning, and he will have a garden in the Paradise.

The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by 'Ali from the Prophet (ﷺ) through a different chain of narrators to the same effect. This version does not mention the word "garden" (khartf).Abu Dawud said

This tradition has been narrated by Mansur from al-Hakkam as narrated by Shu'bah.

Narrated Abu Ja'far 'Abd Allah b. Nafi', the slave of al-Hasan b. 'Ali

Abu Musa paid a sick visit to al-Hasan b. 'Ali.

Abu Dawud said: He narrated the tradition to the same effect as narrated by Shu'bah.

Abu Dawud said: This tradition has been transmitted by 'Ali from the Prophet (ﷺ) without any sound manner.

Chapter 8: Repeated Visits (To A Sick Person)

Narrated 'Aishah

When Sa'd b. Mu'adh suffered affliction on the day of Trench (i.e. the battle of Trench) a man shot an arrow in the vein of his hand. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) pitched a tent for him the mosque so that he might visit him from near.

Chapter 9: Visiting One Who Suffering From Ramad (Eyesore)

Narrated Zayd ibn Arqam

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) visited me while I was suffering from pain in my eyes.

Chapter 10: Fleeing From Plague

Narrated 'Abd Allah b. 'Abbas

That 'Abd al-Rahman b.'Awf said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: When you hear that it is breaking out in a certain territory, do not go there. If it breaks out in the territory you are in, do not go out fleeing away from it. By "it" he referred to the plague.

Chapter 11: Supplicating For The Sick Person To Be Cured When Visiting Him

Narrated 'Aishah daughter of Sa'd

That her father said: I had a complaint at Mecca. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came to pay a sick-visit to me. He put his hand on my forehead, wiped my chest and belly, and then said: O Allah! heal up Sa'd and complete his immigration.

Narrated Abu Musa Al-Ash'ari

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: Feed the hungry, visit the sick and free the captive. Sufyan said: al-'ani means captive.

Chapter 12: Supplicating For The Sick Person When Visiting Him

Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If anyone visits a sick whose time (of death) has not come, and says with him seven times: I ask Allah, the Mighty, the Lord of the mighty Throne, to cure you, Allah will cure him from that disease.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: When a man comes to visit a sick person, he should say: O Allah, cure Thy servant, who may then wreak havoc on an enemy for your sake, or walk at a funeral for your sake.

Abu Dawud said: Ibn As-Sarh (one of the narrators) said: "Ilas-salat (To the Salat)".