Mishkat al-Masabih
Mishkat al-Masabih 1619
وَعَن أُمِّ سَلَمَةَ قَالَتْ: دَخَلَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ عَلَى أبي سَلمَة قد شَقَّ بَصَرَهُ فَأَغْمَضَهُ ثُمَّ قَالَ: «إِنَّ الرُّوحَ إِذَا قُبِضَ تَبِعَهُ الْبَصَرُ» فَضَجَّ نَاسٌ مِنْ أَهْلِهِ فَقَالَ: «لَا تَدْعُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ إِلَّا بِخَير فَإِن الْمَلَائِكَة يُؤمنُونَ على ماتقولون» ثُمَّ قَالَ: «اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِأَبِي سَلَمَةَ وَارْفَعْ دَرَجَتَهُ فِي الْمَهْدِيِّينَ وَاخْلُفْهُ فِي عَقِبِهِ فِي الْغَابِرِينَ وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلَهُ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَأَفْسِحْ لَهُ فِي قَبْرِهِ وَنَوِّرْ لَهُ فِيهِ» . رَوَاهُ مُسلم
Umm Salama reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came to Abu Salama when his eyes were fixed in a stare. He closed them and said, "When the soul is taken, the gaze follows it." Some of his family cried out, so he said, "Do not call down anything upon yourselves except what is good, for the angels say Amen to what you say." Then he said, "O Allah, forgive Abu Salama, raise his rank among those rightly guided, and provide for those he leaves behind. Forgive us and him, Lord of the worlds, make his grave spacious for him, and illuminate it for him." Muslim transmitted it.
Translation notes
وَاخْلُفْهُ فِي عَقِبِهِ فِي الْغَابِرِينَ
The prayer asks Allah to succeed him among his descendants who remain; the precise relation between succession and the surviving descendants is compactly expressed.
How should this prayer for Abu Salama’s surviving descendants be rendered to preserve the wording of اخلفه في عقبه?