Muḥammad b. Isḥāq, al-Zuhrī, and ʿUrwa, through the transmission of Usāma b. Zayd, relate the following:
"The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him), while bedridden with the illness that would end in his death, went to visit ʿAbdullāh b. Ubayy. When the Messenger of God realized that he was about to die, he said:
- I had forbidden you from loving the Jews. He replied:
- It was Asʿad b. Zurāra who angered them. What benefit did that bring him?" al-Wāqidī said: ʿAbdullāh b. Ubayy fell ill a few nights before the end of Shawwāl. He died in the month of Dhū al-Qaʿda. His illness lasted twenty nights. During this time, the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) would visit him. On the day he died, the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) came to visit him. At that moment, he was in the throes of death. The Messenger of God said to him:
- I had forbidden you from loving the Jews. He replied:
- It was Asʿad b. Zurāra who angered them. What benefit did that bring him? O Messenger of God, now is not the time for reproach. I am about to die. Be present at my washing. Give me your inner shirt, so that I may be shrouded in it. Pray over me and ask forgiveness for me.
The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) did so."
Al-Bayhaqī, through the transmission of Sālim b. ʿAjlān, also relates a similar narration from Ibn ʿAbbās. Allah knows best the truth of the matter.
Isḥāq b. Rāhawayh, through Abū Usāma, relates from Ibn ʿUmar the following:
"When ʿAbdullāh b. Ubayy b. Salūl died, his son ʿAbdullāh came to the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) and asked him to give his inner shirt so that he could shroud his father in it. The Messenger of God gave him his inner shirt. Then he asked the Messenger of God to pray over his father. The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up to pray over him. ʿUmar held onto the Messenger of God's garment and said:
- O Messenger of God! Will you pray over him, even though Allah has forbidden you from doing so?
The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) replied:
- My Lord has given me a choice in this matter and has said: "Whether you ask forgiveness for them or do not ask forgiveness for them—if you should ask forgiveness for them seventy times—never will Allah forgive them." (al-Tawba 9:80) But I will ask forgiveness for him more than seventy times.
- But he is a hypocrite. Will you still pray over him? Upon ʿUmar saying this, the Exalted and Majestic Allah revealed the following verse:
- "And do not pray [the funeral prayer] over any of them who has died—ever—or stand at his grave. Indeed, they disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger." (al-Tawba 9:84)
Abū Usāma also confirmed this and said: "Yes, it happened thus." According to the narration of al-Bukhārī and others, ʿUmar said:
- O Messenger of God, will you pray his funeral prayer, even though on such and such a day he said this and that, and on another day he said this and that?
The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) replied to me:
- Leave me, O ʿUmar, for I am between two options. If I knew that asking forgiveness for him more than seventy times would result in his being forgiven, I would ask forgiveness for him more than seventy times.
After saying this, he prayed his funeral prayer. Thereupon, the Mighty and Majestic Allah revealed the following verse:
"And do not pray [the funeral prayer] over any of them who has died, nor stand at his grave!"
I am amazed at the boldness I showed toward the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) that day. Yet Allah and His Messenger know best the reality of the matter.
Sufyān b. ʿUyayna, through ʿAmr b. Dīnār, relates from Jābir b. ʿAbdullāh the following:
"The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) came to the grave of ʿAbdullāh b. Ubayy after his burial. He gave the order, and ʿAbdullāh's body was taken out of the grave. He placed the body on his knees (or shins), then spat into his mouth and clothed him in his inner shirt."
Allah knows best the truth of the matter.
Al-Bayhaqī also recounts here the story of Thāliba b. Ḥāṭib and how, due to his great wealth, he fell into temptation and did not want to give zakāt. We have explained this in detail in our tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) when commenting on the following verse:
"And among them are those who made a covenant with Allah, [saying], 'If He should give us from His bounty, we will surely spend in charity, and we will surely be among the righteous.'" (al-Tawba 9:75)