Discussion on the innovation of accompanying a funeral procession in cars, and the prohibition against imitating the Jews and Christians.

The Shaykh : Today, people go out to accompany funerals in their cars. Without a doubt, we must warn against this lest it become a Sunnah. We must warn that accompanying the dead in this manner is an innovation of misguidance; indeed, it is a double innovation. This is because, in terms of its contradiction of the method by which the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) accompanied funerals, it is an innovation. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Companions used to accompany funerals on foot, walking, on one hand, and on the other hand, they carried the bier on their shoulders. If we place the bier in a car and keep this bier out of sight so that people are not disturbed by seeing the dead on their heads, and then accompany it to its final resting place in cars as well, there is no doubt that this form of accompaniment contains many contradictions to that original form. Accompanying the dead in this way is consistent with a nation that does not believe in Allah or the Last Day, which are nations other than the nation of Islam. Do not think, and do not err with those who err, by believing that the Christians and Jews believe in Allah and the Last Day. No, and this is a reality—also one of those many, many realities that scholars overlook, let alone others. Our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) says in the clear text of the Noble Qur'an: , . Who are these people?
Yes?

The questioner : .

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : .

The Shaykh. is an explanation of His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): and not . Therefore, those who were given the Book, namely the Jews and the Christians, by the explicit text of this Noble Qur'an, do not believe in Allah or the Last Day. I believe that many of you find this strange, even though it is the word of Allah. This is because we live in an atmosphere where we have moved very far away from correct knowledge. Not only that, but misguidance has taken its place, which many people think is knowledge.
Among us are those who say of the Christians: "Our brothers!" I do not rule out that a day will come, near or far, when the Jews will also become our brothers. This is because politics has no religion. Therefore, we do not engage in politics; rather, we engage in Islam, and that is sufficient. If you know, by the text of the Qur'an mentioned earlier, that the Jews and Christians do not believe in Allah or the Last Day, then those who accompany funerals in this manner by car have taken this misguidance from those nations that do not believe in Allah and the Last Day. Whoever is like that sets up material barriers that keep him from remembering death, because he does not believe in death. Do not say: "They believe," because Allah said: .
I will elaborate for you, and elaboration is necessary, even if we pause briefly in following up on the study of these hadiths. The reality is that we do not want our teaching of these hadiths to you to be like the study of others among us, who explicitly say that they study hadith only for the blessing, not for understanding jurisprudence, not for learning, and not for remembrance. We read these hadiths to reflect upon them and benefit from them in terms of knowledge, jurisprudence, and remembrance. Those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, who are the non-Muslims as you have learned, put barriers between themselves and everything that reminds them of death. The first example before you now is the image of their accompanying the dead. This is a clear phenomenon. They are afraid to carry the dead on their heads, for this would undoubtedly remind them of death, which has ridden on their shoulders. Would they do that? I seek refuge in Allah! That is what they say. Therefore, Satan innovated for them what would ease their minds, and he inspired them to place the dead in a locked bier in a car. Then, they also do not walk behind it, but rather ride in their vehicles, which they are accustomed to, as if they are in a normal journey or on a picnic. This is a phenomenon indicating that they do not want means that remind them of death.
Another phenomenon: If you, O Muslim, pass by their graveyards, you do not feel that there are dead in them because of how much they decorate them and plant in them tall, green trees. What is the purpose of this? To hide the eyes from seeing these graves. The majority of Muslims have followed their way, but in the way of Satan, step by step. First, they beautified the fencing of the graveyards. It occurred to some people that this is for the benefit of the dead and out of respect for them. Why? Because such and such is done in them, and so on, and the dogs, and so on. Previously, the wall and fence were about the height of a man, but now the wall is the height of two men. This is so that when a delegation passes by, or people from those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day pass by, they do not see scenes or witness sights that make their hearts gloomy, dark, or disturbed. This is also a phenomenon that began among Muslims, and then the second step crept into them, and they began to plant trees in the graves as well. They justify this with a medical justification, which is to sterilize the air and purify it from microbes and germs, and the like of this pure materialist philosophy! These people do not believe in Allah and the Last Day. Therefore, it is the foolishness and ignorance of Muslims that they imitate those who contradict them in the foundation of creed. We believe in Allah and the Last Day, and they do not believe in Allah and the Last Day. Yet we see ourselves imitating them exactly, as established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and as in the hadith of Abu Sa'id al-Khudri in "Sahih al-Bukhari": . They said: "O Messenger of Allah, the Jews and the Christians?" He said: . Who on earth is mentioned as a nation with its civilization, as they claim, with its civilization, its power, and its culture? There is no one other than the Jews and the Christians.
The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) indicates that it is the nature of a nation, when it declines and weakens, to imitate whoever is stronger than it. The Messenger (peace be upon him) indicates in this hadith that a time will come upon the nation of Islam, which should be the strongest nation in every time and place, where it will follow and adopt the way of the Jews and the Christians exactly.
, even if they were to enter any narrow strait, we would imitate them in that. And I am increasingly astonished every day; I find many of the Muslim youth who gladden the heart from one aspect when I enter the mosques, and sadden it from another aspect; I find a youth eager to obey Allah in the mosques, but he does not understand much of Islam. I pray in the second or third row and I find before me a youth with strange clothing. He is a Muslim standing in the row to pray to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), but if you saw him in the market, you would think he was French or American, or perhaps you would think he was a Jew if there were Jews in the lands here. Why? He wears the "Charleston" pants, which should be narrow in a specific place, but he has widened them by two inches, and in the place where they should be wide, he has tightened them on himself until they bite into his buttocks. Then Satan was not satisfied with this deception until he made the youth attract each other's attention; he even stamped a new design on their buttocks, an image of a branch or a flower or something similar. There is no difference in that between the young man and the young woman, and he is standing to pray!! How is this? This is because he has not been raised with an Islamic upbringing; he still has an emotion for Islam and prays, but he does not understand that Islam is not only in prayer. Islam is a whole that cannot be divided. The Muslim must prove that he is a Muslim wherever he is, not only in the mosque when we see him praying; even if he entered the church for the sake of lesson and observation, it would be said, "I would point to him with my finger: this is a Muslim." So, who among the Muslims today, if they entered the churches for entertainment and lesson, would the people of the church not think he is one of them?!
This is the verification of the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): . And in another narration, more astonishing than this blind imitation, and the appearances began to appear; he said (peace and blessings be upon him): , .
Therefore, O our young brothers, you must not be satisfied with the knowledge of Islam that you have been given, this superficial knowledge. Rather, you must expand your acquaintance with Islam, and you must combine action with it, so that knowledge of the matter does not become a calamity for you, and so that His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) does not apply to us: .