Speaking about announcing the death of a person in the newspapers.

Ali Hasan: Our Shaykh, to complete the discussion on the issue of condolences, what is mentioned in the newspapers, meaning the issue of eulogizing and thanking the prominent figures and famous names who offer condolences, and so on. This falls under what is prohibited. If that is the case, it would be desirable to have some detail, meaning?

The Shaykh : There is no doubt that this falls under the eulogizing of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Furthermore, it is very clear social hypocrisy, because the greater the deceased and the family of the deceased, the greater the announcement of the condolences. This is social hypocrisy! And if it is from the eulogizing of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, in the custom of our righteous predecessors, calling one another to pray for this deceased person and to prepare him and shroud him beyond what is necessary, what do you say about what happens today, as described by the brother, or distributing flyers about the death of so-and-so? And especially some of them have adopted the disbelieving custom of the Christians, surrounding it with a black arch or a black square. This is even more so and more so from the eulogizing of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. In our Damascus, we had a very bad custom. The mu'adhdhin in the Great Umayyad Mosque would announce the death of so-and-so from the top of the minaret, and they had the bell...

The questioner : In Nablus, the same thing...

The Shaykh : We have something orderly and organized, not like this. I do not know what the righteous predecessors did; perhaps they exaggerate. It may be that they are among the most sinful of sinners! No bell at all... For a fee, they announce from the top of the minaret so that they increase the number of mourners. These mourners, as you see, most of them stand at the doors and do not pray. If not that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) taught us through our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), to whom the Qur'an was revealed, and among that is . If not for this verse, I would say that these people who announce increase in punishment upon their punishment! But perhaps they do not have it, they do not want this thing. But is this hidden? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . This hadith has been difficult for some of the predecessors. They said that this hadith contradicts . In response to this difficulty, some of the great scholars went to the figurative interpretation of the hadith, that the deceased is punished, meaning he is pained! He is not punished with a punishment, he is pained. So, despite our respect for this scholar who interpreted it this way, we invalidated his interpretation with an authentic narration: . This invalidates the interpretation of punishment as pain, this by the text. Then, even if we accept the interpretation of punishment in the hadith as pain, it means that the deceased has sensation, he has feeling. These people are crying in this world, and he has become in another world, in the world of the Hereafter, the interval between death and resurrection. We do not have in the Shari'ah what makes us feel, let alone what teaches us, that the deceased after his death becomes to have a type of sensation. The deceased has become like a stone, like wood, he does not feel what will happen to him. If the atomic bomb fell next to him, he would not feel it! How then do people cry in his house, and he has become in the presence of the clouds? What reached the pain to him there! But the point is, what does it mean that the deceased is punished by the crying of his family over him? It means that he knew that the custom of people is that when the deceased dies, the more beloved he is to them, the more they cry and wail over him. But he did not fulfill the duty of conveying the message, advising, and warning. So at that time, because of his negligence in warning his family, he is punished because of that. And it is not merely that I bequeathed, "Do not cry over me." The usual crying, meaning wailing, is what is prohibited. As for the crying of tears, there is no prohibition in it, because this is a very natural matter, as happened to the most perfect of people (peace and blessings be upon him). When his son Ibrahim died, he cried, and he had forbidden them from crying. They said, "O Messenger of Allah, you have forbidden us from crying, and you are crying." He said: .
So the crying of tears is not the crying that is prohibited, but rather the crying of voice and wailing is what is prohibited. So if the patient who is on the verge of death bequeaths to his family and friends, "O our brothers, every living being's path is death. And therefore, if I die, do not cry over me with a voice of wailing, let alone that you gather and make a condolence and cry, let alone that you bring the wailers for a fee, and so on. I am innocent of this thing that you do." If he does this, then he is not punished. But if he is negligent, then he is the one who is punished on the Day of Resurrection. Yes.
Ali Hasan: Shaykh, regarding this hadith, this is a narration, as I recall, in some of your books: . Meaning, this narration is clarified.