The Book of Friday Prayer, the Two Festivals, the Prayer for Rain, the Eclipse Prayer, and Funerals-09b

The reciter: And Hārūn ibn Sa‘īd al-A‘lī told me, “Ibn Wahb informed us, Mu‘āwiyah ibn Sāliḥ informed me, Ḥabīb ibn ‘Ubayd from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, who heard him say, ‘I heard Awf ibn Mālik say: .”

The Shaykh : Supplicating for the deceased is among the most important aspects of the funeral prayer, but when does it occur? The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) arranged this and said: After the first takbir, recite al-Fatihah; after the second, recite the salutation upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family); and after the third, supplicate for the deceased. This is a good arrangement, without doubt. First, it prioritizes the right of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), then the right of whom? The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), then the right of the deceased along with the general Muslim community. This arrangement is indicated by the tashahhud: its beginning is praise of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), then the salutation upon the Prophet, then the salutation upon us and upon the righteous servants of Allah. It is well known that the right of Allah takes precedence over the right of the self and its desires, then the right of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), then the right of the self and the rest of the Muslims.
So the place for supplicating for the deceased is the third takbir, after the third takbir. From the supplication: this is what he mentioned, saying, “I memorized part of his supplication.” In his saying , which indicates partiality, is evidence that there was other supplication that he did not memorize.
“O Allah, forgive him and have mercy on him.” By forgiveness, sins are removed, and by mercy, the desired outcome is achieved. “Grant him well-being and pardon him.” Pardon means overlooking negligence in an obligatory duty, and well-being means being spared from being held accountable for sin. We interpret this because they were mentioned together; otherwise, if one were mentioned alone, each would include the other.
“Grant him well-being and pardon him, and honor his lodging,” meaning his hospitality; make it honorable hospitality. The noble aspect of anything is according to its nature. Nobility can be used to mean beauty, as in the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to Mu‘adh: “Beware of the noble parts of their wealth,” meaning: make his hospitality noble, meaning good. “And widen his entrance,” meaning the place of his entry, which is the grave, because a person is entered into it. “And wash him with water, snow, and hail”: wash him means from sins, and it is not intended to wash him with physical water, as evidenced by his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in the supplication of opening the prayer: “O Allah, wash me from my sins with water, snow, and hail.” Snow and hail were mentioned because the harm of sins—may Allah protect us and you from it—includes punishment by the Fire, which is hot, so it is fitting that the purifier from sins be snow and hail.
Purification means refining, meaning: refine him from sins so that no sin remains for him. Then he emphasized this purification and that it is complete purification, saying: “As You purify a white garment from dirt.” He specified white because white is the one in which dirt is most likely to appear and become evident. This is why your clothes in winter are black and red; they remain with you for a period without being washed. Why? Because the effect of dirt does not appear on them, but on white clothes, the effect of dirt appears quickly. So the white garment from dirt was chosen. These similes from the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are intended to exaggerate the supplication until it reaches this clear limit. “And replace his home with a better home”: Yes, the grave, which Allah has made for you and me a garden from the gardens of Paradise, is better than a person’s home, because he transitions to a home whose bliss cannot be comprehended, so it is better than the entire world, because it is a home of bliss. A person enjoys bliss in his grave, a door to Paradise is opened for him, his sight is expanded, and he receives from Paradise its breeze and its fragrance. So you ask Allah to replace his home with a better home, and his family with a better family. His family in Paradise is undoubtedly better than the family of this world, even though the people of this world are gathered on the Day of Resurrection, some with others, as Allah the Exalted said: .
“And a spouse better than his spouse”: a spouse better than his spouse. If it is a male, there is no problem, because a male can have multiple wives. But if it is a female, if it is a male who has married, yes, he is replaced with a spouse better than his spouse. But if he has not married? Where is his spouse? There are two issues: The first issue: The scholars said: “Replace him with a spouse better than his spouse,” because a spouse in this world may be a source of hardship and harm to his wife, and lack of good treatment, so you ask that this spouse be replaced with a better spouse in qualities. It is as if you are saying: “O Allah, gather her with her husband in Paradise,” because if he enters Paradise with her, his character will change. If someone asks: Do you have evidence that changing qualities is like changing entities? We say: Yes, the saying of Allah the Exalted: The earth on the Day of Resurrection is not replaced, but it is extended, the extension of a leather, and you do not see in it any crookedness or depression, so Allah called that a replacement due to the change of qualities.
As for the one who has not married, how do we say: “And replace him with a spouse better than his spouse,” when we know that he has not married, he is only fifteen years old, he has not married? Yes, we say: “A spouse better than his predetermined spouse,” because the decree is that this person, if he had remained until he married in this world, his wife might have been a source of hardship for him, so you ask Allah the Exalted to replace him with a spouse better than his spouse.
“And admit him into Paradise, and protect him from the punishment of the grave and the punishment of the Fire”: This last part is the fruit and the result, because if a person is safe from the previous harms, he enters Paradise. “And protect him from the punishment of the grave,” or he said “from the punishment of the Fire,” and in a wording: “And from the punishment of the Fire.” So you ask Allah to protect him from the punishment of the grave because it is the first dwelling he enters after this world. Either he is surprised by bliss—may Allah make us and you among them—or he is surprised by punishment, refuge in Allah. So you ask Allah to save him from the punishment of the grave. In this is clear evidence for affirming the punishment of the grave. The Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the righteous Salaf indicate that a person in his grave is either in bliss or in punishment. The people of the Sunnah and the community made this part of their beliefs. There is no basis for one who denies it; there is no basis at all for the saying of one who denies it. And it is amazing that those who deny it recite in their prayer: What? “I seek refuge in Allah from the punishment of Hell and from the punishment of the grave.” In any case, the punishment of the grave is established without doubt. But is it on the body, or on the soul—meaning the spirit—or on both? The original
is that it is on the spirit. The original is that it is on the spirit. For this reason, if we dig up a dead person after two or three days, and he was a disbeliever who died in disbelief, we find his body intact. So the original is that it is on the spirit, but it may sometimes connect to his body. It may sometimes connect to the body, and the effect of the punishment is shown on it, as mentioned by ‘Alī in disputes and in many incidents. But the original is that it is on the spirit, but it may sometimes connect to the body, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed that the one who does not answer the questions about the Lord, the religion, and the Prophet, his grave is squeezed until his ribs differ, may Allah grant us well-being, meaning some enter into others from the severity of the squeezing! And the punishment of the Fire.
He said: Here is a point of difficulty: How can one wish for death? It is said that he did not actually wish for death, but rather he wished for this supplication, meaning that he envied the deceased for the Prophet’s (peace and blessings be upon him) supplication for him with this great du'a. Similarly, the statement of Maryam (may Allah be pleased with her): Similarly, the statement of Yusuf: This does not mean that he asked Allah to take his soul and hasten his death, but rather he asked Allah to let him die upon Islam. Therefore, we do not need to say: How do we reconcile these texts with the prohibition by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of a person wishing for death.