Encouraging the hastening of the funeral and the expediting of burial.

The Shaykh : Our lesson tonight is from the book "Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib" by al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri, in the chapter on encouraging the hastening of the funeral and the expediting of burial.
The first hadith: It is authentic, as the author’s tracing of it indicates to you. He said - may Allah have mercy on him - :
From Abu Hurayrah - may Allah be pleased with him - from the Prophet - peace and blessings be upon him - who said: It was narrated by al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah.
In this authentic hadith, there is an explanation of a manner, indeed an obligatory duty among the duties of accompanying the funeral of a Muslim; which is the obligation to hasten in preparing it and delivering it to its grave. The Messenger of Allah - peace and blessings be upon him - in this hadith explains the legal cause that necessitates this legal ruling; which is hastening in preparing the deceased and burying him. He says: The deceased is either righteous, in which case expediting him and his burial in his grave is a good thing that you hasten to him; and the opposite is the opposite; delaying his burial is only delaying that good from him. What is the good that the Messenger - peace be upon him - refers to in this hadith regarding the righteous man, of whom it is presumed that the funeral should be of his type? What is this good that we present and hasten to him? It is from what came in some hadiths whose chains of narration are not authentic, but whose meanings are authentic; such as: . This meaning came in many authentic hadiths, as I had gathered some of them in my printed and well-known book "The Rulings on Funerals and Their Innovations." And there are hadiths indicating that when the deceased is placed in his grave, if he is a believer and is asked by the two noble angels Munkar and Nakir the well-known question: Who is your Lord? Who is your Prophet? What is your religion? If he is a believing, righteous man, he answers with the answer that had been imprinted in his heart on the day he was enjoying the intellect that is the basis of the Lawgiver’s obligation upon him, so he responded to the call of Allah and the Messenger, and believed in everything the Messenger - may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him - brought. So his answer will be, as it is said today, automatic and natural; because he is saturated with this creed until his last breath of life. So his answer to the first question will be: "My Lord is Allah," and to the second: "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," and to the third: "My religion is Islam." Then it will be said to him: "Sleep the sleep of a bridegroom," and a window will be opened for him from his grave from which he sees and looks out upon his home and place in Paradise. He will receive from its spirit and fragrance, and he will continue to enjoy that until the Hour stands. And if the man is a hypocrite or a disbeliever, he is unable to answer; because, as it is said, one who lacks a thing cannot give it. He was in this world when he was obligated to believe in Allah and His Messenger, he was a disbeliever or a hypocrite who displayed Islam and concealed disbelief. So when he is asked: Who is your Lord? Who is your Prophet? What is your religion? He does not know, so he says, and when he answers with "I do not know," it is said to him: "You did not know, nor were you guided," and he is struck with that hammer, so the ribs of his body interlock with one another from its intensity and weight. And thus a window is opened for him from which he looks out upon his place in the Fire. He will receive from its smoke and flame, and he will continue to be tortured by that until the Hour stands. So if the funeral is of a righteous person, the good that you hasten to her is this good; meaning this bliss, which is better than the bliss of this world, no matter how great this bliss in this world is, but it is less than the bliss of the Hereafter. It is a model and a miniature example of this bliss that the Muslim receives in his grave until the Hour stands. So if the funeral is of a righteous person, it is obligatory upon us to hasten with it and deposit it in its grave so that it may enjoy this bliss until the Hour stands. And the opposite is the opposite; if this funeral is not of a righteous person, it is as he - may Allah’s prayers and peace be upon him - said: ; meaning we get rid of him and are saved from his evil. These meanings and these details, between the funeral being righteous and being inauspicious, and the ruling or consequence that follows due to the difference in righteousness and inauspiciousness in funerals, is a matter that no one in this world knows except the Muslim who believes in Allah and His Messenger. Because this is from the matters of the unseen, which the intellect and empirical science have no reach to extend to and know its realities. Rather, it is from the knowledge of faith in the unseen, and that is the affair of the Muslim. Therefore, the Muslim is driven in his life and all his actions based on the creed he believes in. And the opposite is the complete opposite; so when the Muslim remembers this legal scientific reality; which is that the funeral is either righteous, in which case it is obligatory upon its bearers to hasten with its burial so that they do good to it, if they delay in preparing and burying it, they have done wrong to it. The wise Lawgiver disciplines the Muslim to do good to his Muslim brother, alive and dead. These meanings are not known by others who were deprived of the blessing of faith in Islam.
From this branch legal rulings that disbelievers do not adhere to in unison, and then those who imitated them, either with their knowledge of these Islamic rulings or due to their ignorance of them. Branching from that is that the deceased must be hastened to be buried with the utmost haste that should not be accompanied by any delay except what is necessary. As for intentionally delaying the preparation of the deceased, this is an evil that they present to the righteous man, and this is not permissible in Islam. And if that is among the duties of Muslims in burying their dead, then we know the error that we have reached and arrived at in this age; such that in many cases, the family of the deceased intentionally delay his burial, for nothing except for fame and conveying the maximum possible quantity of people; so that the funeral appears with grandeur and majesty. This is the thinking of the people of this world. As for the Muslim, it does not matter to him whether those who accompany him or pray over him are many in number or few. From here we find the clear, distinct dividing difference between our predecessors and our successors. The righteous predecessors, when one of their dead died, they hastened with his burial, and it did not take more than an hour at most. And they used to will that in their wills during their health and in their death sickness. They used to will the expediting of their burial; due to their knowledge of these realities, of which we are now in the process of explaining some regarding the burial of the deceased and the expediting of his burial. It was narrated from many of the Companions, among them Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, the companion of the Messenger of Allah - peace and blessings be upon him - that when he fell ill with his death sickness, he said: "If I die, then hasten with my burial and do not announce my death to anyone." Do not announce: do not inform anyone of my death. Those present from the family perform the duty upon them of washing him, shrouding him, and burying him. Thus they were, and thus we should be. And we today cannot - with great regret - be like them due to social circumstances and circumstances related to ruling by other than Islam and many, many things. But this does not justify the Muslim not to strive according to his ability and capacity to achieve this Prophetic matter; which is the expediting of the preparation of the deceased. Because Allah - Mighty and Majestic - in His justice with His servants, said: .
We, for example, today have regulations applied to us in some countries, especially the capitals, that are not applied in some villages, particularly the remote ones. For instance, one must obtain a medical report, as they say, and one must contact the death office (the office for burying the dead). This office is not prepared to accept inquiries except within the limits of the system established for the living, not for the dead; so no preparations whatsoever have been made there for such deaths. Therefore, recently, one of our acquaintances had his mother pass away between the midday and afternoon prayers, and he was unable to bury the deceased until the afternoon of the second day. This is a natural consequence of this system or this routine, as they call it. Recently, I was visiting my daughter in Jordan and visited some villages where I saw a modest cemetery. The conversation turned to the method of burial, and they said: “Burial here requires nothing at all, no permission or anything else; dig the grave and bury him, and the matter is done.” I said: “This was the case in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and the time of the righteous predecessors. But when we connected with Europe and its disbelieving systems and adopted them with all their flaws and defects, we suffered what they suffered, inevitably. For Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as He said: . Whoever takes the prescribed means will find ease, good, and blessing in that, and the opposite is the complete opposite. Hence came the verse we have mentioned on more than one occasion: . This is part of the straitened life when we cling to rulings that Islam did not bring, so we are afflicted with some tightness and embarrassment, and perhaps financial tightness as well. As we discussed on a previous occasion, the deceased today costs us a lot to bury; because just as we buy a house for the living, we buy a house for this deceased as well, one that befits his loss of life. In any case, one must pay a material sum that some of those afflicted by a death may be unable to afford. , .”
I say: Because of these conditions, the funeral may take a great deal of time, but it is not permissible for us to adopt the means imposed on us because of social life, as we mentioned. It is not permissible for us to analogize to them means that we are initiating to create, rather than being forced to do so by compulsion. I gave you an example just now: displaying the funeral as if it were a respectable funeral, one that has a reputation and a word in society, so they delay burying the deceased. Even some Muslims have fallen into this problem; meaning, in the past and in the present, the funeral is delayed by a day or two. Why? So that people from the near and far parts of the country can come to accompany it. This is, in reality, one of the problems of partisanship for other than Islam; because when a partisan man dies, it is necessary that all those who belong to his party come out with him. And as you all know, there is nothing of these demonstrations in Islam, but rather something of this showing off (riya'). And this is one of the calamities: that we do not suffice with living our worldly lives while showing off, but we also show off at the expense of the deceased. For this reason, we must take a lesson from this hadith; and that is that if we are afflicted with a deceased person of ours, we must keep in mind the hastening of his burial. Because, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in this authentic hadith: .