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
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him). 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 Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) 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: Apostle of
Allah, what are illnesses? I swear by Allah, I never fell
ill.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) 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: Apostle 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 Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said to his
companions: Are you surprised at the affection of the
mother for her young?
They said: Yes, Apostle 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.
As-Sulami's grandfather, who was a Companion of the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: I heard the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) 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.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) 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.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: If anyone
performs ablution well and pays a sick-visit to his
brother Muslim seeking his reward from Allah, he will be
removed a distance of sixty years (kharif) from Hell. I
asked: What is kharif, AbuHamzah? He replied: A year.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) 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.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) 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 Thy
sake, or walk at a funeral for Thy sake.
A man from the Companions of the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him),
said: The narrator Sa'd ibn Ubaydah narrated sometimes
from the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) and sometimes as a
statement of Ubayd (ibn Khalid): The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him)
said: Sudden death is a wrathful catching.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) came to visit
Abdullah ibn Thabit who was ill. He found that he was
dominated (by the divine decree). The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
called him loudly, but he did not respond.
He uttered the Qur'anic verse "We belong to Allah and
to Him do we return" and he said: We have been dominated
against you, AburRabi'. Then the women cried and wept, and
Ibn Atik began to silence them. The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
said: Leave them, when the divine decree is made, no woman
should weep.
They (the people) asked: What is necessary happening,
Apostle of Allah? He replied: Death. His daughter said: I
hope you will be a martyr, for you have completed your
preparations for jihad. The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
said: Allah Most High gave him a reward according to his
intentions. What do you consider martyrdom?
They said: Being killed in the cause of Allah.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: There
are seven types of martyrdom in addition to being killed
in Allah's cause: one who dies of plague is a martyr; one
who is drowned is a martyr; one who dies of pleurisy is a
martyr; one who dies of an internal complaint is a martyr;
one who is burnt to death is a martyr; who one is killed
by a building falling on him is a martyr; and a woman who
dies while pregnant is a martyr.
When the time of his death came, he called for new
clothes and put on them. He then said: I heard the Apostle
of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) say: A deceased will be
raised in the clothes in which he died.
We buried a deceased person in the company of the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him). When we had
finished, the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
returned and we also returned with him. When he approached
his door, he stopped, and we saw a woman coming towards
him.
He (the narrator) said: I think he recognized her. When
she went away, we came to know that she was Fatimah.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said to her:
What brought you out of your house, Fatimah?
She replied: I came to the people of this house,
Apostle of Allah, and I showed pity and expressed my
condolences to them for their deceased relation.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: You
might have gone to the graveyard with them.
She replied: I seek refuge in Allah! I heard you
referring to what you mentioned.
He said: If you had gone to the graveyard...He then
mentioned severe words about it.
I then asked Rabi'ah (a narrator of this tradition)
about al-kuda (stony land). He replied: I think it means
the graves.
Yazid ibn Aws said: I entered upon AbuMusa while he was
at the point of death. His wife began to weep or was going
to weep. AbuMusa said to her: Did you not hear what the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said? She said: Yes.
The narrator said: She then kept silence. When AbuMusa
died, Yazid said: I met the woman and asked her: What did
AbuMusa mean when he said to you: Did you not hear what
the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) and the you kept
silence? She replied: The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
said: He who shaves (his head), shouts and tears his
clothing does not belong to us.
Usayd ibn AbuUsayd, reported on the authority of a
woman who took oath of allegiance (to the Prophet): One of
the oaths which the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
received from us about the virtue was that we would not
disobey him in it (virtue): that we would not scratch the
face, nor wail, nor tear the front of the garments nor
dishevel the hair.
A man had a shot of arrow in his chest or throat (the
narrator is doubtful). So he died. He was shrouded in his
clothes as he was. The narrator said: We were with the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him).
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) commanded to
remove weapons and skins from the martyrs of Uhud, and
that they should be buried with their blood and clothes.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) passed Hamzah
who was killed and disfigured. He said: If Safiyyah were
not grieved, I would have left him until the birds and
beasts of prey would have eaten him, and he would have
been resurrected from their bellies. The garments were
scanty and the slain were in great number. So one, two and
three persons were shrouded in one garment. The narrator
Qutaybah added: They were then buried in one grave. The
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) asked: Which of the
two learnt the Qur'an more? He then advanced him toward
the qiblah (direction of prayer).
By Allah, we did not know whether we should take off
the clothes of the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) as
we took off the clothes of our dead, or wash him while his
clothes were on him. When they (the people) differed among
themselves, Allah cast slumber over them until every one
of them had put his chin on his chest.
Then a speaker spoke from a side of the house, and they
did not know who he was: Wash the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him)
while his clothes are on him. So they stood round the
Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) and washed him while he had
his shirt on him. They poured water on his shirt, and
rubbed him with his shirt and not with their hands. Aisha
used to say: If I had known beforehand about my affair
what I found out later, none would have washed him except
his wives.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) was shrouded in three
garments of cotton.
The narrator said: Aisha was told that the people said
that he was shrouded in two garments and one cloak. She
replied: A cloak was brought but they returned it and did
not shroud him in it.
Do not be extravagant in shrouding, for I heard the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) say: Do not be
extravagant in shrouding, for it will be quickly decayed.
I was one of those who washed Umm Kulthum, daughter of
the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him), when she died. The
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) first gave us lower
garment, then shirt, then head-wear, then cloak (which
covers the whole body), and then she was shrouded in
another garment. She said: The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
was sitting at the door, and he had shroud with him. He
gave us the garments one by one.
Talhah ibn al-Bara' fell ill and the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him)
came to pay him a sick-visit. He said: I think Talhah has
died; so tell me (about his death), and make haste, for it
is not advisable that the corpse of a Muslim should remain
withheld among his family.
The people saw fire (light) in the graveyard and they
went there. They found that the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
was in a grave and he was saying: Give me your companion.
This was a man who used to raise his voice while
mentioning the name of Allah.
On the day of Uhud we brought the martyrs to bury them
(at another place), but the crier of the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him)
came and said: The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him)
has commanded you to bury the martyrs at the place where
they fell. So we took them back.
The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: If any Muslim
dies and three rows of Muslims pray over him, it will
assure him (of Paradise). When Malik considered those who
accompanied a bier to be a few, he divided them into three
rows in accordance with this tradition.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) used to stand
up for a funeral until the corpse was placed in the grave.
A learned Jew (once) passed him and said: This is how we
do. The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) sat down and said: Sit
down and act differently from them.
An animal was brought to the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) while he was going with a funeral. He
refused to ride on it. When the funeral was away, the
animal was brought to him and he rode on it. He was asked
about it. He said: The angels were on their feet. I was
not to ride while they were walking. When they went away,
I rode.
(I think that the people of Ziyad informed me that he
reported on the authority of the Prophet
(peace_be_upon_him): A rider should go behind the bier,
and those on foot should walk behind it, in front of it,
on its right and on its left keeping near it. Prayer
should be offered over an abortion and forgiveness and
mercy supplicated for its parents.
Uyaynah ibn AbdurRahman reported on the authority of
his father that he attended the funeral of Uthman ibn
Abul'As. He said: We were walking slowly. AbuBakrah then
joined us and he raised his flog at us and said: You have
seen us when we were with the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him). We were walking quickly.
Uyaynah also reported the aforementioned tradition (No.
3176) through a different chain of transmitters. This
version goes: We attended the funeral of AbdurRahman ibn
Samurah and he said: He (AbuBakrah) made his mule run
quickly and pointed with the flog.
We asked the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) about walking
with the funeral. He replied: Not running (but walking
quickly). If he (the dead person) was good, send him to it
quickly; if he was otherwise, keep away the people of
Hell. The bier should be followed and should not follow.
Those who go in front of it are not accompanying it.
A man fell ill and a cry was raised (for his death). So
his neighbour came to the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) and said to him: He has died. He
asked: Who told you? He said: I have seen him. The Apostle
of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: He has not died. He
then returned.
A cry was again raised (for his death). He came to the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) and said: He has
died. The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: He has not
died. He then returned.
A cry was again raised over him. His wife said: Go to
the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) and inform him.
The man said: O Allah, curse him.
He said: The man then went and saw that he had killed
himself with an arrowhead. So he went to the Prophet
(peace_be_upon_him) and informed him that he had died.
He asked: Who told you? He replied: I myself saw that
he had killed himself with arrowheads. He asked: Have you
seen him? He replied: Yes. He then said: Then I shall not
pray over him.
Ibrahim, the son of the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him),
died when he was eighteen months old. The Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) did not pray over him.
AbuDawud said: I recited to Sa'id ibn Ya'qub
at-Taliqani saying: Ibn al-Mubarak transmitted to you from
Ya'qub ibn al-Qa'qa' on the authority of Ata' that the
Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) prayed over his son Ibrahim
when he was seventy days old.
Narrated Abdullah Ibn Abbas; AbuSa'id al-Khudri;
AbuQatadah; AbuHurayrah:
Yahya ibn Subayh said: Ammar client of al-Harith ibn
Nawfal told me that he attended the funeral of Umm
Kulthum, and her son. The body of the boy was placed near
the imam. I objected to it. Among the people there were
Ibn Abbas, AbuSa'id al-Khudri, AbuQatadah and AbuHurayrah.
They said: This is the sunnah (established practice of the
Prophet).
Nafi' AbuGhalib said: I was in the Sikkat al-Mirbad. A
bier passed and a large number of people were accompanying
it.
They said: Bier of Abdullah ibn Umayr. So I followed
it. Suddenly I saw a man, who had a thin garment on riding
his small mule. He had a piece of cloth on his head to
protect himself from the sun. I asked: Who is this
important man? People said: This is Anas ibn Malik.
When the bier was placed, Anas stood and led the
funeral prayer over him while I was just behind him, and
there was no obstruction between me and him. He stood near
his head, and uttered four takbirs (Allah is Most Great).
He neither lengthened the prayer nor hurried it. He then
went to sit down. They said: AbuHamzah, (here is the bier
of) an Ansari woman. They brought her near him and there
was a green cupola-shaped structure over her bier. He
stood opposite her hips and led the funeral prayer over
her as he had led it over the man. He then sat down.
Al-Ala' ibn Ziyad asked: AbuHamzah, did the Apostle of
Allah (peace_be_upon_him) say the funeral prayer over the
dead as you have done, uttering four takbirs (Allah is
Most Great) over her, and standing opposite the head of a
man and the hips of a woman?
He replied: Yes. He asked: AbuHamzah, did you fight
with the Apostle of Allah? He replied: Yes. I fought with
him in the battle of Hunayn. The polytheists came out and
invaded us so severely that we saw our horses behind our
backs. Among the people (i.e. the unbelievers) there was a
man who was attacking us, and striking and wounding us
(with his sword). Allah then defeated them. They were then
brought and began to take the oath of allegiance to him
for Islam.
A man from among the companions of the Prophet
(peace_be_upon_him) said: I make a vow to myself that if
Allah brings the man who was striking us (with his sword)
that day, I shall behead him. The Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) kept silent and the man was brought
(as a captive).
When he saw the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him),
he said: Apostle of Allah, I have repented to Allah. The
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) stopped (for a while)
receiving his oath of allegiance, so that the other man
might fulfil his vow. But the man began to wait for the
order of the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) for his
murder. He was afraid of the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) to kill him. When the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) saw that he did not do anything, he
received his oath of allegiance. The man said: Apostle of
Allah, what about my vow? He said: I stopped (receiving
his oath of allegiance) today so that you might fulfil
your vow. He said: Apostle of Allah, why did you not give
any signal to me? The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: It
is not worthy of a Prophet to give a signal.
AbuGhalib said: I asked (the people) about Anas
standing opposite the hips of a woman. They told me that
this practice was due to the fact that (in the days of the
Prophet) there were no cupola-shaped structures over the
biers of women. So the imam used to stand opposite the
hips of a woman to hide her from the people.
Ali ibn Shammakh said: I was present with Marwan who
asked AbuHurayrah: Did you hear how the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) used to pray over the dead? He said:
Even with the words that you said. (The narrator said:
They exchanged hot words between them before that.)
AbuHurayrah said: O Allah, Thou art its Lord. Thou
didst create it, Thou didst guide it to Islam, Thou hast
taken its spirit, and Thou knowest best its inner nature
and outer aspect. We have come as intercessors, so forgive
him.
When the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) prayed
over a dead person, he said: O Allah, forgive those of us
who are living and those of us who are dead, those of us
who are present and those of us who are absent, our young
and our old, our male and our female. O Allah, to
whomsoever of us Thou givest life grant him life as a
believer, and whomsoever of us Thou takest in death take
him in death as a follower of Islam. O Allah, do not
withhold from us the reward (of faith) and do not lead us
astray after his death.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) led us in
prayer over bier of a Muslim and I heard him say: O Allah,
so and so, son of so and so, is in Thy protection, so
guard him from the trial in the grave. (AbdurRahman in his
version said: "In Thy protection and in Thy nearer
presence, so guard him from the trial in the grave) and
the punishment in Hell. Thou art faithful and worthy of
praise. O Allah, forgive him and show him mercy. Thou art
the forgiving and the merciful one." AbdurRahman said: "On
the authority of Marwan ibn Janah."
When Uthman ibn Maz'un died, he was brought out on his
bier and buried. The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) ordered a
man to bring him a stone, but he was unable to carry it.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) got up and going
over to it rolled up his sleeves.
The narrator Kathir told that al-Muttalib remarked: The
one who told me about the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) said: I still seem to see the
whiteness of the forearms of the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) when he rolled up his sleeves. He then
carried it and placed it at his head saying: I am marking
my brother's grave with it, and I shall bury beside him
those of my family who die.
Ali, Fadl and Usamah ibn Zayd washed the Apostle of
Allah (peace_be_upon_him) and they put him in his grave.
Marhab or Ibn AbuMarhab told me that they also made
AbdurRahman ibn Awf join them.
When Ali became free, he said: The People of the man
serve him.
AbuIshaq said: Al-Harith left his will that Abdullah
ibn Yazid should offer his funeral prayer; so he prayed
over him. He then put him in the grave from the side of
his legs and said: This is a Sunnah (model practice of the
Prophet).
We went out with the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) to the funeral of a man of the Ansar,
but when we reached the grave, the niche in the side had
not yet been made, so the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) sat
down facing the qiblah, and we sat down along with him.
When the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) placed the dead in
the grave, he said: In the name of Allah, and following
the Sunnah of the Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him).
I said to the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him): Your old and
astray uncle has died. He said: Go and bury your father,
and then do not do anything until you come to me. So I
went, buried him and came to him. He ordered me (to take a
bath), so I took a bath, and he prayed for me.
The Ansar came to the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) on the day of Uhud and said: We have
been afflicted with wound and fatigue. What do you command
us?
He said: Dig graves, make them wide, bury two or three
in a single grave.
He was asked: Which of them should be put first?
He replied: The one who knew the Qur'an most.
He (Hisham) said: My father Amir died on the day and
was buried with two or one.
I said to Aisha! Mother, show me the grave of the
Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) and his two
Companions (Allah be pleased with them). She showed me
three graves which were neither high nor low, but were
spread with soft red pebbles in an open space.
Whenever the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) became free
from burying the dead, he used to stay at him (i.e. his
grave) and say: Seek forgiveness for your brother, and beg
steadfastness for him, for he will be questioned now.
Narrated Bashir, the Client of the Apostle of Allah:
Bashir's name in pre-Islamic days was Zahm ibn Ma'bad.
When he migrated to the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him). He asked: What is your name? He
replied: Zahm. He said: No, you are Bashir.
He (Bashir) said: When I was walking with the Apostle
of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) he passed by the graves of
the polytheists. He said: They lived before (a period of)
abundant good. He said this three times. He then passed by
the graves of Muslims. He said: They received abundant
good.
The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) suddenly saw a
man walking in shoes between the graves. He said: O man,
wearing the shoes! Woe to thee! Take off thy shoes. So the
man looked (round), When he recognized the Apostle of
Allah (peace_be_upon_him), he took them off and threw them
away.
People with a bier passed by the Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him). They (the companions) spoke highly of
him. He said: Paradise is certain for him. Then some
people with another (bier) passed by him. They spoke very
badly of him. He said: Hell is certain for him. He then
said: Some of you are witness to others.