SECTION OF CORPSES · 57 – WHERE DOES THE IMAM STAND DURING FUNERAL PRAYER?
Nafi from Abu Galib relates: “I was in the sheep pen street of Basra and encountered a funeral procession with a large gathering. They said, ‘This is the funeral of Abdullah ibn Umayr.’ I began to follow the bier. Then I saw a man on a horse, wearing simple clothing. He had a piece of cloth over his head to protect him from the sun. I asked who this village chief and landowner was, and they replied, ‘This is Anas ibn Malik.’ When the bier was laid down, Anas stood up and performed the funeral prayer. I was directly behind him, with no curtain between us. He stood at the head of the deceased. He took four takbirat, neither prolonging them nor hastening them. Then he intended to sit when someone said, ‘O Abu Hamza, this woman is from the Ansar,’ and they brought the woman closer. She was covered with a green box lid, and Anas ibn Malik stood at her lower side, just as he had performed the funeral prayer for a man. He then sat down. Ala ibn Ziyad said to Abu Hamza, ‘O Messenger of Allah, did you perform the funeral prayer facing the head of the man and the feet of the woman, taking four takbirat, as you have done?’ Anas ibn Malik replied, ‘Yes.’ Ala ibn Ziyad asked, ‘Did you accompany the Messenger of Allah in battle?’ Anas said, “I accompanied the Messenger of Allah in the Battle of Hunayn. The polytheists attacked us until our horses turned tail and fled. [We were forced to retreat.] There was a man among the enemy who was attacking us, cleaving our ranks with his sword and cutting us down. Then Allah routed them, and they were taken captive.” They pledged allegiance to Islam under the Messenger of Allah. A companion from amongst the Sahabah said, ‘If Allah Almighty brings that man who held us back with his sword, scattering our ranks, here to pledge allegiance as a prisoner, I vow by my oath that I will strike his neck.’ The Messenger of Allah remained silent. The man was brought captive. When he saw the Messenger of Allah, he said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I repent to You.’ So that the companion could fulfill his oath, the Messenger of Allah did not give him a pledge of allegiance. The companion was trying to get close to the Messenger of Allah so that he might order his killing, but he feared both unauthorized killing and the Messenger of Allah. When the Messenger of Allah saw that the companion could do nothing, He accepted the man’s pledge of allegiance. Then the person who had made the vow said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what about my vow?’ The Messenger of Allah replied, “I have been waiting for you to fulfill your vow since morning.” The companion said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, could You not have blinked at me?’ The Messenger of Allah said, “Blinking for a Prophet is hypocrisy.” Abu Galib asked me about Anas’s action of standing below the waist of the woman in the funeral prayer. I was informed that it was because there was no box covering the woman. The Imam stood at her lower side to protect the woman from the view of the congregation." Abu Dawud said: “The phrase ‘now I repent’ in the hadith which contains the saying, ‘I am commanded to fight people until they say La ilaha illallah,’ removes the sentence regarding fulfilling a vow to kill that person, because once he becomes Muslim, killing him is forbidden.”
EXPLANATION
Büreyzine: A diminutive of Berzün. It refers to horses other than Arabian horses.
Imaz: To indicate with the eye, to blink.
Nauş: This means a box lid placed over something.
It is narrated on the authority of ‘Abd-Allah ibn Ja’far that: We performed the funeral prayer for a woman who died in a state of impurity (postnatal bleeding) behind the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) led us in her prayer, standing directly in line with her middle.
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