Explanation of the hadith of Abu Umamah, who said: (Whoever washes a corpse and keeps it secret, Allah will purify him from his sins, and if he shrouds him, Allah will clothe him in brocade).

The Shaykh : As for what follows it, which is...
The hadith of Abu Umamah, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It was narrated by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir.
And this is a good hadith.
In it is an encouragement to another type of action, which is easier for many people than the two previous matters, especially the wealthy and those of means.
In the previous hadith, there is an encouragement to wash the corpse. Many people fear this washing; many people fear that if they take charge of washing the corpse, they might see it at night and be disturbed by seeing it. All of this is due to weakness of faith, lack of strength of the heart, and weakness of the strength of the heart.
Just as taking charge of digging the grave is not an easy matter, because it requires strength, as we mentioned earlier, but here is a third thing that is very easy, which is for a man to take charge of shrouding the corpse. However, is the intended meaning of taking charge of shrouding it only buying the shroud, and saying, for example, to the funeral director who takes charge of shrouding, "The cost of the shroud is on me"? Or does the meaning include taking charge of shrouding it, buying the shroud, and personally shrouding the corpse? There is no doubt that this meaning is what should be understood, because the wording is general, and this is the way of the Arabic language: a general wording should be applied in its generality unless something comes to restrict it. So his saying includes buying the shroud and taking charge of shrouding it with his own hands.
So this is a third matter in which the Lawgiver encourages the Muslim to take charge of shrouding the corpse, and his reward with Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is that he will be rewarded with good of the same kind as his deed, because we say that the reward is of the same kind as the deed. So this Muslim took charge of shrouding his dead Muslim brother, but Allah (Mighty and Majestic) rewards him with something better than that: that He will clothe him in Paradise with its silk, its fine brocade, and its brocade.
And so, in the hadith, there is good news for the one who takes charge of shrouding the corpse that he will enter Paradise, because this clothing in brocade cannot be imagined outside of Paradise, because there is only the worldly life, or the barzakh (the interval between death and resurrection), or the Hereafter. This clothing is not applicable in the worldly life, because brocade is forbidden for the Muslim. In the barzakh, there is no material life like the life we are living now. The higher and loftier life that we will live, if Allah wills, afterwards is in the Gardens.
So, then, there remains only that this clothing is the reward for the Muslim shrouding his dead brother, except in Paradise.
And this is a style we know from the Wise Lawgiver. The necessary thing must be understood. As long as he gave good news of the clothing, that includes that he gave good news of Paradise. Similarly, the one who did not wear silk in the worldly life will wear it in the Hereafter: So from this brief, short phrase, "Allah (Mighty and Majestic) will clothe him in brocade," the meaning is that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) takes charge of the one who shrouded his Muslim brother by making him enter Paradise and clothing him with its silk and brocade.
As for the remaining hadiths that follow in this chapter, they are between weak and very weak. In our next lesson, if Allah wills, we will discuss the encouragement to accompany the corpse and attend its burial.
This is sufficient.
And praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.