Funerals

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Frequently remember the destroyer of pleasures: death.” Al-Tirmidhi (2307), al-Nasai (4/4), and Ibn Hibban (2992), who authenticated it. The wording appears in variants as hadhim, meaning cutting off; hadim, meaning demolishing; and hazim, meaning overcoming or subduing. All refer to death. Al-Tirmidhi called it hasan gharib; the editor says it would have been better to call it only hasan, since there is no basis for describing it as gharib. Ibn Hibban adds in his Sahih: “No servant remembers death while in hardship but that it eases for him, or remembers it while at ease but that it constricts his ease.” Its chain is hasan, like the main report. The hadith is authenticated through its many corroborating reports, documented in the original work.

Anas reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: None of you should wish for death because of hardship that befalls him. If he must wish for it, let him say: O Allah, keep me alive as long as life is better for me, and take me in death when death is better for me. Agreed upon. Al-Bukhari (5671) and Muslim (2680); authentic.

Buraydah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: A believer dies with sweat on his brow. Transmitted by the Three; Ibn Hibban authenticated it. Al-Tirmidhi (982), al-Nasai (4/5–6), and Ibn Majah (1452). Manuscript A mistakenly says al-Tirmidhi in the initial attribution. Al-Nasai has a chain meeting the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim, and it has an authentic corroborating report from Ibn Masud.

Abu Said and Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: Prompt your dying with the words There is no deity but Allah. Here, prompting the dying means reminding and instructing those present with a person at the point of death, so that the person final words may be There is no deity but Allah. The report is authentic. Abu Said version: Muslim (916), Abu Dawud (3117), al-Nasai (4/5), al-Tirmidhi (976), and Ibn Majah (1445); al-Tirmidhi called it hasan gharib sahih. Abu Hurayrah version: Muslim (917) and Ibn Majah (1444). Al-Bazzar adds, with an authentic chain meeting the criteria of Muslim: Whoever has There is no deity but Allah as his final words at death will enter Paradise one day, even if whatever was to befall him had befallen him before that.

Maqil ibn Yasar reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Recite Ya-Sin over your dead.” Abu Dawud (321), al-Nasai in Amal al-Yawm wa al-Laylah (1074), and Ibn Hibban (3002). The report is weak and has several defects, detailed in the original work, which also answers Ibn Hibban interpretation of it.

Umm Salamah reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered upon Abu Salamah while his gaze was fixed in death, and closed his eyes. He said: “When the soul is taken, the sight follows it.” Some of his family cried out, so he said: “Do not invoke anything against yourselves except good, for the angels say amen to what you say.” Then he said: “O Allah, forgive Abu Salamah, raise his rank among the rightly guided, make his grave spacious, and illuminate it for him. Take care of those he leaves behind.” Muslim (920); authentic. Al-Nawawi explained that the phrase means he was near death and his eyes were fixed on something, his gaze not returning.

Aishah reported that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ died, he was covered with a striped Yemeni cloak. Agreed upon. Al-Bukhari (5814) and Muslim (942); authentic.

Aishah reported that Abu Bakr al-Siddiq kissed the Prophet ﷺ after his death. Al-Bukhari (8/146–147 and 10/166, Fath al-Bari); authentic.

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “The soul of a believer remains suspended by his debt until it is paid on his behalf.” Ahmad (2/440, 475, 508) and al-Tirmidhi (1078, 1079); al-Tirmidhi graded it hasan. It is authentic through corroborating reports from four Companions, documented in the original work.

Ibn Abbas reported that the Prophet ﷺ said about a man who fell from his mount and died: “Wash him with water and lote leaves, and shroud him in two garments.” Agreed upon. Al-Bukhari (1265) and Muslim (1206). The full wording continues: “Do not perfume him or cover his head, for Allah will resurrect him on the Day of Resurrection reciting the talbiyah.” Another version says: “Allah will resurrect him on the Day of Resurrection while he is reciting the talbiyah.”

Aishah reported: When they intended to wash the Prophet ﷺ, they said: “By Allah, we do not know whether to remove his clothes as we do with our dead, or to wash him with his clothes on.” Ahmad (6/267) and Abu Dawud (3141); the wording here is from Abu Dawud. In the full report, when they disagreed, Allah caused them all to fall asleep, their chins resting on their chests. Then a speaker from the house, whom they could not identify, said: “Wash the Prophet ﷺ with his clothes on.” They washed him in his shirt, pouring water over it and rubbing him through the shirt rather than with their hands. Aishah said: If I had known then what I know now, none but his wives would have washed him. The report is hasan.

Umm Atiyyah reported: The Prophet ﷺ came to us while we were washing his daughter and said: “Wash her three times, five times, or more than that if you think it necessary, using water and lote leaves. Put camphor, or some camphor, in the final washing.” When we had finished, we informed him, and he gave us his waist-wrapper and said: “Use it as the innermost layer against her body.” Agreed upon. Al-Bukhari (1253) and Muslim (939, report 36). Another version says: “Begin with her right side and the parts washed in ablution.” Al-Bukhari (167) and Muslim (939, reports 42–43). Al-Bukhari wording adds: “We braided her hair into three plaits and placed them behind her.” Al-Bukhari (1263).

Aishah reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was shrouded in three white Sahuli cotton cloths, without a shirt or turban. Agreed upon. Al-Bukhari (1264) and Muslim (841). Sahuli is attributed to Sahul, a village in Yemen; it is also explained as a place-name or as referring to cloth. With a different vowel, it can refer to a fuller who cleans cloth. Al-Azhari said that with a fatḥah it denotes the town, and with a ḍammah the clothing. Cotton is the meaning of qutn.

Ibn ‘Umar reported: ‘When ‘Abd Allah ibn Ubayy died, his son came to the Messenger of Allah and said, “Give me your shirt so I may shroud him in it.” He gave it to him.’ Agreed upon. 1

1 — Sound. Reported by al-Bukhari (1269) and Muslim (2400). Other hadiths have also been reported whose apparent meanings conflict with the hadith of Ibn ‘Umar; the answer to this is discussed at length in Subul al-Salam and other works, such as Fath al-Bari.

Note: Some, including al-Isma‘ili, Ibn Hajar, and others, have taken this hadith to show that it is permissible to seek the relics of righteous people for blessing. I say: No. Seeking blessing in this way is permissible only through the relics of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and not those of other righteous and virtuous people. Our evidence is that fundamental principle which we proclaim day and night and teach to everyone: ‘according to the understanding of the righteous early generations.’ This is what distinguishes the Salafi movement from other movements, whether juristic and school-based, intellectual and ideological, or partisan and methodological.

This example clearly shows that without this qualification a person enters innovation through its widest door—Allah protect us. In the Sunnah, we find that the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, sought blessing through the Prophet’s ablution water, his sweat, and other traces of his, as reported in the two Sahih collections and elsewhere. But do we find that the Companions or the righteous early generations in the three preferred centuries did this with the relics of anyone other than the Prophet? Every fair-minded person will surely say: ‘No, we do not find that.’ We say: ‘Had it been good, they would have preceded us to it.’ Since they did not do it, and treated it as something specific to the Prophet, we must not go beyond their understanding. Otherwise, we fall into the innovations and misguidance of many people who discard this qualification, ‘according to the understanding of the righteous early generations.’ Many of them—if not all—despite their misguidance, say that following the Qur’an and Sunnah is obligatory.

Finally, I remind some of those who lead gatherings and seminars today that this principle has evidence from the Book of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and from the hadith of the Prophet—not as one of them said in a lesson: that throughout his scholarly life he knew only the Qur’an and Sunnah and learned this from his teachers, until the Salafis invented this statement. In any case, all of this is discussed in detail in my treatise The Salafis Maligned. Praise be to Allah, first and last.

Ibn Abbas reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Wear white garments, for they are among the best of your garments, and shroud your dead in them. Reported by the five, except al-Nasai; al-Tirmidhi graded it sound.

Al-Tirmidhi said: Hasan sahih. Reported by Ahmad (3426), Abu Dawud (4061), al-Tirmidhi (994), and Ibn Majah (3566).

Jabir reported that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: When one of you shrouds his brother, let him do it well. Reported by Muslim.

Muslim (943) graded it sahih. The report begins with the Prophet delivering a sermon one day. He mentioned a man among his Companions who had died, been shrouded in an inadequate shroud, and buried at night. The Prophet reproached them for burying a man at night before offering the funeral prayer, unless someone was compelled to do so. The editor says, See no. 593 below.

Jabir reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) would place two of the martyrs of Uhud in one shroud. He would ask, Which of them had learned more of the Quran? Then he would place that one first in the grave. They were not washed, nor was the funeral prayer offered over them. Reported by al-Bukhari.

Al-Bukhari (1343) graded it sahih.

Ali reported: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say, Do not be extravagant in shrouding, for it is quickly taken away. Reported by Abu Dawud.

The editor grades it weak. Abu Dawud (3154).

Aishah reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to her: If you die before me, I will wash you. Reported by Ahmad and Ibn Majah; Ibn Hibban graded it sahih.

Ahmad (6/228) and Ibn Majah (1465). In one manuscript: I would wash you.