To carry the corpse, you first take the front, right hand side of the
corpse on your right shoulder and walk ten steps. Then, taking the hind part of
the coffin where the (corpses) right leg is, you carry it for ten more steps.
Then, changing to the left hand side of the corpse, which is the right hand
side of the coffin when looked from the rear, you carry it on your left
shoulder, ten steps by the front and ten steps by the back of the coffin. All
these add up to forty steps. A hadīth-i sherīf
declares, If a person carries the janāza (corpse)
for forty steps, forty of his grave sins shall be
forgiven.
When seeing a janāza, Muslims who happen to be in a store, in a cafe,
etc. should at least carry it forty steps, walk behind it for a while, and say
the Fātiha and other prayers for his soul. It is written in Marāqil-falāh and Halabī-i
kabīr that when seeing the janāza it is tahrīmī makrūh to stand up
and wait with your face towards it. After carrying the janāza you should walk
behind it.
Rasūlullah
(sallallāhu alaihi wasallam) carried the janāza of Sad bin Muāz (radiyallāhu
anh). What a great fortune!
It is makrūh to carry the janāza in a manner called baynal amūdein,
which means two people carrying it, one person in front and the other in back,
similar to carrying a stretcher. It is sunna to carry it in a manner called terbī (four-sided) as is being done today, that
is, on the shoulders and by holding on to the wooden shafts. You do not pass
the shaft between your arm and your shoulder; you hold it by the shaft with
your hand and take it on your shoulder. It is not permissible to carry the
janāza on your back or on a beasts back.
[Unless there is a strong necessity, it is kerīh (repugnant,
unbecoming) to carry the janāza on a carriage or in a car, which is a
disbelievers custom; it tortures and harms the dead person; those who carry it
in this manner become sinful. It is a grave sin to abandon Islamic customs and
adopt disbelievers customs. During the times of our Prophet
(sallallāhu alaihi wasallam) and the Sahāba (alaihimurridwān) corpses were
carried only in a manner called terbī. If government regulations order the
coffin to be carried on a hearse, obedience is necessary.]
A
suckling, or a child slightly bigger, can be carried by one person, on both
hands. This person (carrying the childs corpse) may as well be on an animal.
Big children are carried in coffins.
The
janāza must be carried with such speed as not to joggle
It is
makrūh to delay the janāza till after Friday prayer so that the jamāat will be
large. If it is feared that Friday prayer may be missed because of the time
spent for the burial, then the salāt of janāza can be delayed till after Friday
prayer. [It is not permissible to delay the janāza till the following day so
that his relatives living in distant places will be present too].
The
salāt of Iyd is performed before the salāt of janāza, and the salāt of janāza
is performed before the khutba of Iyd. People waiting for the salāt of janāza
in the musallā do not stand up before the janāza is put on the ground. It is
written in Surrat-ul-fatāwā, Those who sit in the musallā should not stand up
when the janāza is brought there.
Those
who attend a funeral should walk close behind the janāza. It is sunnat-i
muakkada to attend a funeral. According to Shāfiī Madhhab you walk ahead of
the janāza. Women do not attend funerals. The janāza is carried silently. It is
bidat, sinful to say tekbīrs, tehlīls, ilāhīs loudly. You should not forsake a
funeral that has such bidats, but you should prevent them if possible.
However, it is necessary to give up a feast that has such bidats. Though it is
permissible to walk in front of the janāza or beside it, it is better to walk
behind it.
It is
permissible to have ones grave dug while one is alive. If the grave is on your
property (land), it will belong to you. If it is not in your property or if you
have not bought your grave in the cemetery, someone else may be buried there as
well.
It is
necessary and sunna and very useful to bury the corpse in a large cemetery. It
must be buried near (the graves of) sālihs (pious Muslims) and Awliyā
rahmatullāhi taālā alaihim ajmaīn. The grave must be far away from the
graves of sinners and fājirs and, especially, from the graves of disbelievers
and renegades. It is not good to bury the corpse at a dank place. It must be
buried at a dry place if possible. Burying it at a dank place causes it to rot fast.
In Islam the corpse should rot late. If the earth is dank or loose it is good
to bury the corpse in a coffin.
To carry flowers and garlands with the janāza, to put them on the
grave, to wear badges, signs and pictures of mourning are disbelievers customs.
It is harām for Muslims to do such things, and they are harmful to the dead
person, too. It is declared in a hadīth-i sherīf,
which is transmitted by Ibn Māja and written in Kunūz-ud
deqāiq: Do not take the janāza (to the cemetery) with
noise, fire, lights or other
things. It is
good to lay a piece of silk or other kind of cloth on a grave that is in a
room-like tomb, or to sprinkle rose leaves on the cloth, and thus to give it an
odorous scent. That this is permissible is written in the Persian book Tahqīq-ul haqq-il mubīn, by Ahmad Sāīd-i
Serhendī rahmatullāhi taālā aleyh.
It is
fard-i kifāya to dig a grave and to bury the corpse in the grave. [If the
number of Muslims required to bury the corpse is not sufficient, it will then
become fard for anyone who has been informed of the death to be present at the
burial ceremony. If nobody can be found to do the service free and paid
grave-diggers are hired, then every Muslim who didnt serve despite having
information will be sinful. They will become fāsiqs. To bury the corpse, like
performing the salāt of janāza, is an ibādat. It is fard to do such an ibādat
free of charge. Any payment received will become harām. It is permissible for
poor people to do such a fard in return for money if nobody can be found to do
such a service free and in order to avoid the risk of not providing the service
to Muslim corpses. Payment received by these people will become halāl, but
those who shun from the service will not escape the fisq; they will become sinful.
Since burying the deceased persons body into soil is fard, anyone who shuns
this responsibility by underestimating the fard and argues that it would be
fundamentalism to bury a corpse or that it would be better to cremate it like
the disbelievers called Buddhists, Hindus and Communists, or by scientific
reasoning, will lose his īmān (belief) and become a murtad.]
It is not permissible to put it on the ground, in a building, or in
marble without digging the earth. If it is not possible to take a person to
land who has died on a ship, it is not fard to bury him. Two people cannot be
buried in one grave unless it is inevitable. Before a corpse has rotted and its
bones have become earth, someone elses corpse cannot be buried in its grave.
If it is impossible to dig another grave, the bones (of the former) are put
together (on one side of the grave) and earthed up; then the latter can be
buried in the other side of the grave. When the corpse rots and changes into
earth, another corpse can be buried in the grave. If the plot of land does not
belong to Waqf and if it is someones property, the owner can use this land as
a field or build a house on it. The fatwā states so, too. It is written in the
section about manual afflictions in Hadīqa,
After the corpse has rotted and become earth, it is permissible to bury
someone else in its grave
or to cultivate the place of the grave or
to build a house on it. If graves remain under the waters of a flood or river,
it is not permissible to unearth the corpses (or bones) to bury them somewhere
else. If an abandoned cemetery of disbelievers no longer bears any sign of
disbelievers, Believers may be buried or a mosque may be built there. As a
matter of fact, the building plot of Masjīd-i Nabī in Medina used to be the
disbelievers cemetery. The graves were dug, the bones were taken out and
buried somewhere else.
It is written in Jāmiul-fatāwā,
The depth of the grave must be equal to the length between a mans chest and
feet. It is better if it is as deep as a mans height. The grave must be deep
so that water will not leak into it, scent will not ooze out of it, and beasts
will not be able to dig it up. It must be equal to the corpses stature in
length, and its width must be half its length. The graves length must be
perpendicular to the direction of qibla. It is sunna to make a lahd. A lahd is
a niche dug on the qibla side of the grave and all along the grave. It must be
large enough to receive the corpse in width and depth, after the grave has been
dug. The corpse is put on its right side in the lahd. You do not make a shaq
(furrow), that is, you do not dig a trench along the middle of the grave
already dug and put the corpse in it. If the earth is weak and damp, you put
the corpse with the coffin in the niche or directly in the grave. If the soil
is dry and strong, it is makrūh to bury a man together with the coffin. It is
makrūh to spread such things as felts or mats under the corpse. If you bury it
with its coffin, you must put some soil in the coffin. It is always very good
to bury womens corpses in their coffins.
If a
person dies on a ship and if his corpse may putrefy before the ship reaches
land, he is washed and shrouded and his salāt is performed; then, if
disbelievers land is close by, the corpse is put into the sea with some heavy
object tied to the shroud. If you are closer to the Muslims coast, you do not
tie a heavy object to the shroud.
It is
not permissible to bury the corpse of a person in the room where he died. It
must not be buried near a school or tekke, either; it must be taken to a Muslim
cemetery.
It is written in Shirat-ul Islām:
When the janāza is put on the ground near the grave, those who do not help
with the work should sit or squat down. They should not stand like Jews and
Christians. It is mustahab to recite seven sūras as the corpse is buried. These
seven sūras are Innā andhalnā, Kāfirūn, Idhā jāeh,
Ikhlās, the two sūras beginning with Qul
aūdhu, and Fātiha. Also, it is mustahab to give alms and present the thawāb to
the dead persons soul every day for one week after the burial.
An
odd or even number of people approach the grave, turn towards the qibla, take
the corpse, which has been placed on the qibla side of the grave and lengthwise
parallel to the grave, and put it in the grave or in the lahd with its face
towards the qibla. When doing this they say the prayer, Bismillah wa billah wa
alā millat-i Rasūlillah, sallallāhu alaihi wasallam. They do not say the
adhān. The corpses face is turned towards the inside of the lahd, and earth
and sun-dried bricks are put behind it. Then the grave is filled with earth. It
is not permissible to reopen the grave to turn the corpse towards the qibla if
it has been placed the other way round. For, it is harām to reopen a grave. It
can be reopened to take something left in the grave. The ends of the shroud are
undone in the grave.
It is written in Mīzān-ul kubrā,
It is unanimously stated by the four Madhhabs that the grave side of the lahd
is covered with sun-dried bricks or a mat. It is makrūh to cover it with baked
bricks or with wood. [Nails, baked things such as bricks are ornamental items.
It is makrūh to use them for a corpse]. It is permissible to cover the outer
part of the grave with bricks, wood, or marble stones. The blessed lahd of
Rasūlullah (sallallāhu alaihi wasallam) was covered with nine sundried bricks.
If a womans corpse is interred without a coffin, a large piece of cloth must
be used as a curtain.
The
grave is covered with earth. The top of the grave must not be more than a span
above ground level. It is mustahab to cast three handfuls of earth on top of
the grave from the head side.
After
the burial, it is mustahab to sit around the grave for a few minutes, or to
read (or recite) the beginning and final parts of the Sūrat-al Baqara, and to
pray and do istighfār for the dead person. [Christians stand by the grave and
pronounce benedictions. Muslims should not say their prayers standing like
priests. They should squat and then say their prayers. It will be of great use
if some pious Muslims perform khatm and khatm-i tehlīl gratis by dividing the
business among themselves and send the thawāb to the dead persons soul; they
may do this by coming together in the home of one of them as well as by every
one doing it in his own home. [It is disbelievers custom to make speeches by
the grave. It is not permissible to make speeches like disbelievers or to
praise the dead person with such attributes as he did not
actually possess. And it is useless and
unecessary to praise him (or her) with attributes that he (or she) had. It is
permissible to weep for the dying person. It is written in Sharh-us-sudūr and Berekāt
that Heavens weep for the death of a Believer. It is not
permissible to cry loudly for a dead person, to mourn, to wear black clothes,
to hang black curtains, rosettes, ornaments, to bear mourning badges or the
dead persons photographs. It is written in Khazānat-ur
riwāyāt, It is not permissible to cover the janāza or the place of
the janāza with black clothes or to wear black clothes.]
It is sunna to pour water on the grave. It is not sunna in Hanafī
Madhhab to make the top of the grave straight. It is sunna to make it
protuberant and round like the ridge of a fish. It is not permissible to
whitewash the inside of the grave with lime or to paint it. It is written
towards the end of Halabī-i kebīr that
it is permissible in Hanafī Madhhab to make mausoleums or buildings over the
graves of savants and great men of the religion in order to protect them. This
is written also in Mīzān and at the end
of Uqūd-ud-durriyya. But it is harām to
make them for adornment. It is permissible to protect the grave by making a
stone and cement wall or iron railing around it.
It is
permissible to place tombstones over graves. It is not permissible to inscribe
āyats, blessed names, poems, eulogies, the word Fātiha or to put the dead
persons picture on the stone. Such things are bad bidats, though they have
been done for years. Bad customs are not necessarily permissible. They (savants)
said that it is permissible to write the persons name and the hijri date of
his death on the tombstone.
When
an expectant mother dies, if the child is alive, her womb is cleaved on the
left side and the child is taken out. If an expectant mothers child dies
inside the womb and if it will cause the mothers death, an obstetrician
inserts her hand through the vagina, cuts the child to pieces with her
implements, and takes it out. If (it is feared that) the child will cause the
mothers death though it is alive, it is not permissible to cut [kill] the
child. For, it is not known for certain that it will cause the mothers death;
it is an anticipated probability. It is not permissible to kill a human being
to prevent an anticipated danger. If a person swallows someone elses property
and then dies, and if he has no other property to pay for it, his abdomen is
cleft and the property is taken out.
There
is more thawāb for men in attending their neighbors,
relatives or friends funeral than in
performing supererogatory worship.
It is mustahab to bury the janāza in the city where he or she died. It
is permissible to take the corpse to a two or four kilometre distance. The
janāzas of Yaqūb and Yūsuf alaihim as-salām (the Prophets
Jacob and Joseph) were transported from Egypt to Damascus, but transportation
(of corpses) was permissible in their Sharīas (canon laws). It is written in
the fifth volume of Radd-ul muhtār that
transportation is not permissible after the burial. It is bātil (invalid) to will
(in your last request) to be transported to somewhere else.
When you meet a young or old male member or an old female member of a
bereaved family it is sunna to afford consolation to him. The condolatory
statement is a certain Arabic expression: Azamallāhu
ajrak wa ahsana azā-ak wa ghafara li-mayyitik, which means, May
Allāhu taālā add to your thawābs, promote your grade, and give you beautiful
patience, and may He forgive the sins of the mayyit (dead person). There is no
thawāb for disasters and grievances; there is thawāb for being patient about
them. But they will cause the forgiveness of your sins even if you are not
patient about your grievances. Illness is a grievance, too. It is permissible
for the bereaved person to stay at some place for less than three days for
consolation; but it is not permissible to stay in a mosque, and women are not
permitted to stay anywhere (for consolation). Prayers are said after the
burial, and (sections from) the Qurān al-kerīm are read or recited silently. It
is makrūh to read them loudly. Then the jamāat and the bereaved must leave for
their work. It is makrūh to offer consolation after the third day (of the
death). However, it is not makrūh for those who are far away and those who have
heard of the death later. Also, it is makrūh to offer consolation twice, to do
it by the grave, in the dead persons home or at his door. Consolation can be
done by letter as well.
It is
mustahab for the neighbors and the nearby relatives to send a day - and -
nights food to the bereaved family. When Jafer-i Tayyār (radiyallāhu anh)
was martyred with more than seventy wounds with swords and arrows, Rasūlullah
(sallallāhu alaihi wasallam) commanded food to be sent to his home. It is
makrūh and an ugly bida to dole out food, such as sweetmeat, from the bereaved
home. It is makrūh to make such things as sweetmeat and shortbread on the
first, third, seventh, [fortieth or fifty-third] day, to mete out food by the
grave, or to invite hāfizes,
khodjas, reciters of mawlid and have them
read (or recite) (religious poems, etc.), and give feasts. Such things are
being done mostly for ostentation and fame. Whilst these bidats are being done
many harāms are being committed as well. Also, it is bātil (invalid) to will
(in your last request) that these things be done. (Such wills) are not to be
obeyed, for it is sinful. You must not wait until the fortieth day; you must
make such presents as prayers, khatms and alms and have the congregational
prayers such as the mawlīd performed, provided men and women will not gather
together at the same place, on the very first day of the death. The thawāb (for
pious acts) must be sent as presents to the dead persons soul.
It is
sinful to hold meetings incompatible with the Sharīa for the dead in mosques
and to have a mawlid recited in those meetings. As it is sinful for women and
men to sit together for other occasions, it is worse for them to come together
for a mawlid. To commit sins in acts of worships is worse than committing them
otherwise. It is for these reasons that it is forbidden to perform salāt at
three harām times. There is no thawāb for the salāt performed at a forbidden
time or place, and it is sinful. For, it has been performed despite the
prohibition. It has been forbidden for women and men to sit together. This
prohibition will be more sinful if it is committed in an act of worship in
mosques.
It is sunna to do telqīn[1]
[standing against the qibla and the grave] after the burial. It has been said
(by savants) that it might as well not be done. It is said in the book Majmā-ul
anhur, It was said that it would be possible to do telqīn even after death.
For the soul and wisdom are given back, and the deceased one understands the
telqīn. The same applies in the Madhhab of Shafiī. Although some savants
argued that telqīn has neither been commanded nor forbidden, (therefore it is
not permissible), it would be better to do it. It is written in the book Jawhara that it would be permissible to do telqīn
to the deceased in the grave. In the book Nūr-ul
yaqīn fī mabhas-it telqīn, it is proved with various evidence that
it is sunna to do the telqīn. It is written in Jilā-ul qulūb and Ghāliyya that:
Rasūlullah (alaihissalātu wassalām) commanded telqīn to be done after the
burial. And he himself performed the telqīn. It is written in detail in the
---------------------------------
[1] Prompting the articles of īmān to the deceased person, so that he may answer the interrogating angels.
explanation
of the book Birgivī Vasiyetnamesi by
Kadżzāde how the telqīn is to be done. There is no need to do telqīn to people
who will not be interrogated in the grave. It is written in Sirāj, The savants of Ahl-as sunna unanimously
declare that all people will be questioned in the grave. A dead child will be
inspired by Allāhu taālā how to answer. Ibn Abdul Berr and Imām-i Suyūtī say
that, Only the Ahl-i qibla will be questioned, whether they be true Believers
or hypocrites. Accordingly, the report stating that Hadrat Umar was
questioned and giving a quotation of his answers is correct. Muhammad bin
Alqamī, a disciple of Suyūtī, passed away in 929 hijri. He says in his
explanation of his masters book of ahādīth, Jāmius
saghīr: Disbelievers are not questioned in the grave. Of Believers,
nine kinds of people are not questioned in their grave: a martyr, a person who
dies while keeping guard against the enemy, a person who dies of an epidemic
disease such as plague or cholera, a person who does not flee when such a
disease spreads, who waits patiently and then dies for some other reason,
siddīqs, children who have not reached the age of puberty, those who die on
Friday or on Friday night (the night between Thursday and Friday), those who
read the Sūrat-at Tebāraka [and the
Sūrat-as Sajda] every night, those who read the Sūrat-al Ikhlās on their deathbed are not questioned in
their grave. Prophets (alaihimussalām) are
included among the siddīqs. A deceased person who has remained in his coffin
for a few days is not questioned. The questioning is done in the grave.
Kādż-zāde Ahmed Efendi says in the book Āmantu
sharhi, which is named Farāid-ul-fawāid,
The questions are on some of the articles of īmān or on various articles of
īmān and deeds; or different people are asked different questions. The book Īmān ve Ibādet, by Muderris Muhammed Demir Hāfiz,
was published in 1344 [1926], and was authorized by the committee of scrutiny
of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. It is written in that book, The
following must be memorized for answering the angels of Munker and Nakīr in the
grave: My Rab (Creator, Owner) is Allāhu taālā, my Prophet
is Muhammad alaihissalām, my Dīn (religion) is Islām, my (holy) Book is the
Qurān-i aziymushshān, my Qibla is the Kaba-i sherīf, my Madhhab in belief is
Ahl-i sunna wal jamāa, my Madhhab in deeds is Imām-i azam Abū Hanīfa. Ahmed
Asżm Efendi says in the explanation of Amālī,
Even if a corpse was broken into pieces and then eaten by wolves, or burned in
a fire, or decayed in the sea, he will certainly be questioned and will suffer
the torment or enjoy the blessings of
the
grave. Disbelievers and sinners who die without repentance will suffer torment
in the grave. It is said in hadīth-i sherifs that, The
grave will be either a garden out of heavens gardens or a pit out of hells
pits. and We trust ourselves to Allah
from suffering torment in the grave. and Dont splash urine on yourself. Most people will suffer torment in the
grave because of this. and The
deceased person feels annoyance with the wailings of his spouse and children.
Rasūlullah (sallallāhu alaihi wasallam) was standing beside two graves, when
he said, These two people are suffering torment in
their graves, one of them because of not being careful about splashing urine,
and the other one due to the gossip he spread among Muslims. No
matter at what age they die, both the men and the women in Paradise will be
thirty-three years old.