Topic: Funerals

On the day of Uhud my paternal aunt brought my father to bury him in our cemetery, but God’s messenger’s crier called out, “Take back the dead to the place where they fell.” Ahmad, Tirmidhi Abu Dawud, Nasa’i and Darimi transmitted it, the wording being Tirmidhi’s.

Abul Hayyaj al-Asadi told that ‘Ali said to him, “I am sending you on the same mission as God’s messenger sent me. Do not leave an image without obliterating it, or a high grave without levelling it.” Muslim transmitted it.

Jabir said God’s messenger forbade that graves should be plastered with gypsum, that any erection should be built over them, and that people should sit on them. Muslim transmitted it.

Abu Marthad al-Ghanawi reported God’s messenger as saying, “Do not sit on graves, and do not pray facing them.” Muslim transmitted it.

Abu Huraira reported God’s messenger as saying, “It is better that one of you should sit on live coals which burn his clothing and come in contact with his skin than that he should sit on a grave.” Muslim transmitted it.

Bukhari said without a complete isnad that al-Hasan (i.e. al-Hasan al-Basri (21-110. A.H )) recited Fatihat al-Kitab over an infant and said, “O God, make him for us a righteous deed which has gone before us, a recompense gone ahead, a treasure and a reward.”

Jabir reported the Prophet as saying, “Prayer should not be said over an infant which has not uttered a sound, neither may he inherit nor leave an inheritance.” Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah transmitted it, but the latter did not mention “nor leave an inheritance”.

Abu Mas’ud al-Ansari said God’s messenger forbade that the imam should stand on anything when the people were behind him, meaning on a lower level than he was. Daraqutnl transmitted it in al-Mujtaba in Kitab al-jana’iz.

‘Amir b. Sa‘d b. Abu Waqqas told that Sa‘d b. Abu Waqqas said during his illness of which he died, “Make a niche for me in the side of the grave, and set up bricks over me as was done with God’s messenger.” Muslim transmitted it.

Ibn ‘Abbas said that a piece of red stuff was put in God’s messenger’s grave. Muslim transmitted it.