What is the Sunnah regarding placing the deceased in the grave?

The questioner : There is a question about when you place the deceased in the grave. There is a specific method where they turn the face and the whole body. Is this correct?

The Shaykh : Yes, but without offense, this is not what you asked me. This is a question we will record for you. Yes, directing the deceased has a system in Islam. First, when we put the deceased in the grave, we lower his head from the feet side, not the other way around; this is the Sunnah. Then we direct him toward the qiblah, because the qiblah is for the living and the dead. And we do nothing more than that.

The questioner : Directing the face or directing the body?

The Shaykh : No. The whole body. It is not hidden from you that when a person dies, he becomes rigid.

The questioner : Understood, correct, understood.

The Shaykh : So if you try to direct only his face, it means you want to break his neck. He is directed in his entirety. This question reminds us of a neglected Sunnah in this land. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: What is al-lahd? What is al-shaq? Our graves today are all shaq, which is a rectangular hole dug in the ground and the deceased is placed at the bottom of this hole. This is the shaq. This is not for Muslims, but for non-Muslims. What is al-lahd? This shaq is dug on the qiblah side. It has four sides: the qiblah side and the floor of the hole. This opens to the size of the deceased's body, whether short or tall, etc., so that he is lowered comfortably with his face toward the qiblah and his whole body toward the qiblah. Then he is supported by a stone behind his back. Then, when the earth comes, the body of the deceased and the hole become one piece. The earth does not come on his face, unlike what they do today with tiles, trying to block the openings between the tiles. All of this will disappear if we follow the Sunnah, which is burying the deceased in al-lahd and not in al-shaq.

The questioner : Al-lahd from the qiblah side.

The Shaykh : Yes, from the qiblah side. And that is why we say he is supported by a stone behind his back. When the earth comes, it comes behind his back, so it becomes one piece with the ground in which he is. So this is also one of the neglected Sunnahs. And this is a very broad matter. The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us about what would happen. Of course, this was not from his own knowledge, but from the Lord of the Worlds. He said: With the passage of history, the number of Muslims has not reached this magnitude before: 900 million.

The questioner : One billion.

The Shaykh : One billion. These people, as Shaykh Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (may Allah have mercy on him) said—he was an Islamic philosopher with good deeds and bad deeds, and he had a saying. He was the only enemy of the English with his pen and his tongue. He used to say: If the Muslims were one hand and they directed their spittle at the English, they would have killed them with their spittle without weapons. The number is huge. The point is: how is the number huge, yet they are humiliated and were humiliated by the most humble of people? That is because of His saying (peace and blessings be upon him): They said: "Who are they, O Messenger of Allah?" He gave two answers. Once he said:

They are a few righteous people among many people, of whom more disobey them than obey them

هم ناس قليلون صالحون بين ناس كثيرين من يعصيهم أكثر ممن يطيعهم

That is enough. Who informed him?

she said, "Who told you this?" He said, "I was informed by the Knowing, the Acquainted."

قالت من أنبأك هذا قال نبأني العليم الخبير

[At-Tahrim 66:3]

Allah informed the Messenger, or the Messenger is a human being as He said:

Say, "I am only a man like you, to whom has been revealed that your god is one God.

قل إنما أنا بشر مثلكم يوحى إلي إنما إلهكم إله واحد

[Al-Kahf 18:110]

He said:

They are a few righteous people among many people, of whom more disobey them than obey them

هم ناس قليلون صالحون بين ناس كثيرين من يعصيهم أكثر ممن يطيعهم

And this is completely observed, tangible to the touch. You do not hear anything but the truth, even if someone else said it, but perhaps you said it to someone else.

The questioner : In the end,

Those who disobey them are more than those who obey them.

من يعصيهم أكثر ممن يطيعهم

The Shaykh : There is no "in the end." This is one hadith. I am mentioning one hadith. There is another hadith:

Islam began as something strange and will go back to being strange, so glad tidings to the strangers.

إن الإسلام بدأ غريبا وسيعود غريبا فطوبى للغرباء

Sunan Ibn Majah 3987Hasan (Darussalam)

They said: " Who are they, O Messenger of Allah? " He said:

They are a few righteous people among many people, of whom more disobey them than obey them

هم ناس قليلون صالحون بين ناس كثيرين من يعصيهم أكثر ممن يطيعهم

The second narration, which is more important for our direction in da'wah, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

Blessing upon the strangers. They are those who repair what people have corrupted of my Sunnah after me.

طوبى للغرباء هم الذين يصلحون ما أفسد الناس من سنتي من بعدي

And here, jihad in this time is this jihad. Because when you tell women that it is forbidden for you to display your adornment, everyone will blame you. In fact, you see a woman displaying her adornment entering the mosque to pray, knowing her state, but she is just going with the flow. But the problem is the one who prays at night while people are sleeping and in a state of heedlessness... and he is in misguidance. This is the greatest problem, as the Exalted said in the Noble Qur'an regarding the disbelievers:

⁽¹⁰³⁾ Say, [O Muhammad], "Shall we [believers] inform you of the greatest losers as to [their] deeds? ⁽¹⁰⁴⁾ [They are] those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work."

قل هل ننبئكم بالأخسرين أعمالا الذين ضل سعيهم في الحياة الدنيا وهم يحسبون أنهم يحسنون صنعا

[Al-Kahf 18:103-104]

A person who does not pray is easy to admonish and he responds to you, because he understands that abandoning prayer is disbelief. But one example of reality: a man wants Allah to provide him with a child, and he is sterile, or his wife is sterile, or both are sterile. He goes to our Master Shu'ayb like that, asking from our Master Shu'ayb to send him a child. And this is tawassul, and this is major shirk. In Aleppo, there is a grave. Allah is the Greatest, His name suffices us to know the depth into which many Muslims have fallen. This grave is called "Qadi al-Hajaat" (The Judge of Needs). And not only that; the woman who married and did not have a child comes and rides on the grave, doing this. This is more dangerous than the one who does not pray. I seek refuge in Allah. And therefore he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the second description of the strangers:

they will set right the corruptions caused in my sunna by people after my death

هم الذين يصلحون ما أفسد الناس من سنتي من بعدي

Mishkat al-Masabih 170Isnād Da'īf Jiddan (Zubair `Aliza'i)

So I mentioned the known thing. Despite the multitude of Muslims, what is the secret of this multitude with the few? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

The people will soon summon one another to attack you as people when eating invite others to share their dish

ستداعى عليكم الأمم كما تداعى الأكلة إلى قصعتها

Sunan Abi Dawud 4297Sahih (Al-Albani)

They said: " Who are we among them, O Messenger of Allah? " He said:

No, you will be numerous at that time: but you will be scum and rubbish like that carried down by a torrent, and Allah will take fear of you from the breasts of your enemy and last enervation into your hearts.

لا بل أنتم يومئذ كثير ولكنكم غثاء كغثاء السيل ولينزعن الله الرهبة من صدور عدوكم وليقذفن في قلوبكم الوهن

Sunan Abi Dawud 4297Sahih (Al-Albani)

They said: " And what is the weakness, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: In addition to their deviation in creed, and we gave an example earlier of Qadi al-Hajaat. So just as love of this world and hatred of death have settled upon their hearts, we became humiliated despite our multitude, and they became noble despite their fewness. Why? Because they fulfilled the divine condition: