The Book of Friday Prayer, the Two Festivals, the Prayer for Rain, the Eclipse Prayer, and Funerals-09a
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The reciter: And Zuhayr ibn Harb and 'Ali ibn Hujr narrated to us, saying: Isma'il narrated to us. And Yahya ibn Ayyub narrated to us, and Ibn 'Ulayyah narrated from Ayyub, from Abu Qilabah, from Abu al-Muhallab, from Imran ibn Husayn, who said: The Messenger of Allah said: Sahih Muslim 953 And in Zuhayr's narration: .
The Shaykh : These hadiths, as you know, are from the hadith of Jabir and Abu Hurayrah, that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed over the Najashi. This is the prayer over the absent person. Is the prayer over the absent person prescribed for everyone who dies while absent, or is there a detail in this, or is it not prescribed at all?
The answer is that it is said: Some of the scholars said that it is prescribed for every absent person, until some of them went so far as to say that if a person wants to sleep, he should pray the funeral prayer and intend with it to pray over everyone who died that day. There is no doubt that this is a religious innovation (bid'ah); the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do it, nor did his Companions, and we do not know that any of the Imams did it. Some of them said: One should pray over every absent person who is known by name, whether he has a virtue for the Muslims by knowledge, wealth, or the like, or not. Some of them said: One should not pray over anyone except one who has a virtue by knowledge, wealth, or the like, but he should be prayed over in any case. And some of them said: One should not pray over the absent person except one who has not been prayed over. All of these take their evidence from the story of the Najashi. But when we reflect on the story of the Najashi, we find that the most correct of the opinions is the one that says: One should not pray over the absent person except if he has not been prayed over. The evidence for this is that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not pray over anyone who died, even if they were more excellent than the Najashi. Likewise, the Rightly Guided Caliphs were not prayed over in the lands, and they are more noble than the Najashi. But the Najashi died in a land where they did not understand the prayer over the dead, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was informed of it and prayed over him. This is the choice of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), and it is, if Allah wills, the truth and the correct opinion.
But if an order comes from the rulers that we should pray over so-and-so, then in this case we comply, because those who say that it is not a recommended practice (sunnah) do not say that it is forbidden (haram), so it cannot be said that there is no obedience to a created being in disobedience to the Creator. When the order comes from the ruler, the disagreement is lifted, and we pray over him, following the order of the rulers whom we were commanded to obey in matters other than sin.
A brother of yours has died; so stand up and offer prayer for him, i. e. Negus.
إِنَّ أَخًا لَكُمْ قَدْ مَاتَ، فَقُومُوا فَصَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ يَعْنِي النَّجَاشِيَA brother of yours
إِنَّ أَخَاكُمْThe Shaykh : These hadiths, as you know, are from the hadith of Jabir and Abu Hurayrah, that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prayed over the Najashi. This is the prayer over the absent person. Is the prayer over the absent person prescribed for everyone who dies while absent, or is there a detail in this, or is it not prescribed at all?
The answer is that it is said: Some of the scholars said that it is prescribed for every absent person, until some of them went so far as to say that if a person wants to sleep, he should pray the funeral prayer and intend with it to pray over everyone who died that day. There is no doubt that this is a religious innovation (bid'ah); the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not do it, nor did his Companions, and we do not know that any of the Imams did it. Some of them said: One should pray over every absent person who is known by name, whether he has a virtue for the Muslims by knowledge, wealth, or the like, or not. Some of them said: One should not pray over anyone except one who has a virtue by knowledge, wealth, or the like, but he should be prayed over in any case. And some of them said: One should not pray over the absent person except one who has not been prayed over. All of these take their evidence from the story of the Najashi. But when we reflect on the story of the Najashi, we find that the most correct of the opinions is the one that says: One should not pray over the absent person except if he has not been prayed over. The evidence for this is that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not pray over anyone who died, even if they were more excellent than the Najashi. Likewise, the Rightly Guided Caliphs were not prayed over in the lands, and they are more noble than the Najashi. But the Najashi died in a land where they did not understand the prayer over the dead, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was informed of it and prayed over him. This is the choice of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), and it is, if Allah wills, the truth and the correct opinion.
But if an order comes from the rulers that we should pray over so-and-so, then in this case we comply, because those who say that it is not a recommended practice (sunnah) do not say that it is forbidden (haram), so it cannot be said that there is no obedience to a created being in disobedience to the Creator. When the order comes from the ruler, the disagreement is lifted, and we pray over him, following the order of the rulers whom we were commanded to obey in matters other than sin.