The Washing and the Burial

The event of the bayʿah to Abū Bakr is skipped here, because it was covered at the beginning of the lectures on Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq. On, then, to the washing of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and his burial. Ibn ʿAbbās said that the family of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) were the ones who took care of washing the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, al-Faḍl ibn ʿAbbās, Qutham ibn ʿAbbās, Usāmah ibn Zayd, and Ṣāliḥ, the servant of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And then Aws ibn Khawlī, one of the Anṣār, knocked on the door and said to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: I ask you by Allah to let me in. So he was let in, but he did not take part in the actual washing.

ʿAlī held the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) against his chest. And it is said in the narration that they were debating whether to wash the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in his clothes or without his clothes, because the sunnah is to wash without the clothes; but then they heard a voice: wash the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in his clothes (Abū Dāwūd 3141). So the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not uncovered during his washing. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said: we washed him over his garments. And al-ʿAbbās, al-Faḍl and Qutham used to turn the body with ʿAlī; and Usāmah ibn Zayd and Ṣāliḥ, the servant of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), were the ones pouring the water; and ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the one who would rub the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And then they wrapped him in three pieces of cloth, which were the shroud: that was the shroud of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

The ṣalāh of janāzah over the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not one congregation: people would come in and pray, and then they would come out; and this carried on. Men would come in and out, as many as the room would hold, making the ṣalāh of janāzah over the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). And the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was in the room of ʿĀʾishah. And Umm Salamah says: we were all together, the women of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), crying; and we had a little comfort in at least seeing the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): even if the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not alive, we had the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) with us in the room to look at. And we were crying, continuously crying.

And then, subḥān Allāh, she said — and this was Wednesday night, late at night — she said: we heard the pickaxes; we heard the digging — the digging of the grave of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). So we all broke down and screamed; and they heard it in the masjid, and they screamed — and all of Madīnah. There was an uproar all over Madīnah, because now they knew that the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was going into its grave. She said: they heard us in the masjid, and then from the masjid the crying was everywhere, all over Madīnah. And when it was time for Fajr, Bilāl was making the adhān. He said: Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar; ashhadu an lā ilāha illā Allāh, ashhadu an lā ilāha illā Allāh; and when he came to ashhadu anna Muḥammadan rasūlu Allāh, he could not go any further: he started crying, and could not finish the adhān.

So they dug the grave of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) in the room of ʿĀʾishah, according to the sunnah that the prophets are buried in the place where they die; and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was buried in the room of ʿĀʾishah. ʿĀʾishah said that she had seen a dream in which three moons fell into her lap. And Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq was very good at interpreting dreams; he said: if your dream is true, then three men, of the best men on the face of the earth, will be buried in your house. And when it was time to bury the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), Abū Bakr told ʿĀʾishah: this is the best of your moons.

The body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was lowered into the grave; and again, it was the family of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) who took care of his burial. However, it says in one narration that al-Mughīrah, before they covered the grave, deliberately threw his ring into the grave, and then said to everyone: wait, wait, let me go and get my ring. So he went down into the grave, to be the last person to touch the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and then he came out.

When the burial was done and people came back, Fāṭimah said: O Anas — she was speaking to Anas ibn Mālik — O Anas, did your hearts allow you to throw dirt on the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) when he was buried? (al-Bukhārī 4462). So the whole thing was difficult for them: the washing of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), the burial of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), the death of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — everything was very hard for the ummah. And that is why the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: whenever a calamity befalls one of you, remember the calamity of my death (Ibn Mājah 1599). The greatest calamity that can befall a Muslim has already happened, and that is the death of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); whatever happens to you after that is going to be small compared with the loss of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — compared with the fact that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) is not with us. Everything else is small.