When must a Muslim bathe after burying a disbeliever?
Ghusl After Burying a Non-Muslim: Islamic Jurisprudence on a Rare Scenario
Summary
Sh. Ali Mashhour discusses the fourth type of ghusl (ritual bathing) that is preferred in Islamic jurisprudence: bathing after burying a disbeliever. This is an extremely rare and obscure scenario that occurs only when a Muslim is directly responsible for physically burying a non-Muslim relative due to the absence of other family members or community members willing to perform this duty. Sh. Ali Mashhour uses the historical example of Ali ibn Abi Talib burying his father Abu Talib to illustrate this principle, while clarifying the strict Islamic guidelines that prohibit Muslims from attending non-Muslim funerals, making dua for disbelievers, or performing full funeral rites for them. He emphasizes that this situation is so rare it is virtually impossible for most Muslims to encounter, but scholars mention it for completeness and historical reference.
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Foreign.
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Foreign.
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Huh?
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Alhamdulillah. Continuing.
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In the chapter regarding the various types oful which are preferred. Now we have listed thus far three types of which are preferred. The author here goes into a fourth which I believe is probably rather obscure, rather unknown or less known. And being that it is less known, I doubt that many of us will ever encounter this. However, it is something that is an occurrence that did happen in the prophet sallall.aii wasallam's time and therefore it is listed on the off chance that someone may have this particular scenario occur. Here.
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The author tells us bathing after burying a disbeliever. believer. Now, this is a very obscure instance. And what is meant by bathing after burying a disbeliever is that a person physically is the one that does the burying. Now it is essentially impermissible for the believer to bury the disbeliever unless in an obscure instance where the Muslim is the direct descendant, the direct heir and directly responsible for burying this particular person. And the instance that the author here cites is the narration of and this is regarding when his father passed away. Now a person may see this and say well this is an evidence that it is permissible for a Muslim to bury a non-Muslim or for a Muslim to attend a funeral of a non-Muslim. But had that been the case would the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam not have attended his uncle's funeral? He would have been the first to attend. Correct. If any disbeliever was worthy of having his funeral attended by the prophet sallall.aii wasallam, it would be the it would be Abu Talib due to his extensive history in defending the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. Right? due to his extensive history in defending the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. However, he did not attend his funeral. He did not bathe him. He did not interact with his body. He went to him as he was passing away. He you know invited him to Islam there at his bedside in his final moments. But he left it at that. After Abu Talib passed away, the prophet sallall.aii wasallam never saw him again. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has prohibited that a Muslim make dua of forgiveness for a person who has died upon disbelief. For a person who has died upon disbelief. This is with respect to Ibraim. This is with respect to Abu Talib. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down the verse in the ending and closing verses of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala. He says,.
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And and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the closing verses of it is not permissible. This is the exact translation. Actually the translation would be more correct. It is not permissible and not fit. It is inappropriate for the prophet and the believers, those who believe, to seek forgiveness on behalf of the disbelievers, on behalf of the mushri, even if they are of family after it has been made clear to them that they are of the people of the hellfire. How is it that it becomes clear to a person when someone else is of the people of the hellfire? How do we know that? Say dying upon disbelief. Right? When a person is offered Islam, they reject Islam, they die upon disbelief. We know otherwise how can we know? We wouldn't know other than this because in a person's lifetime they may change. However, in a person's death when they die upon a particular religion, this is an indication that this person has their their time has been sealed and it will not change. And so in this verse, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made it impermissible to make and seek forgiveness on behalf of those who die upon disbelief, even if they are family members. Even if they are family members. And an important point here is that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam did not know this prior to his uncle dying upon disbelief prior to the death of Abu Talib. And Abu Talib died in which year? Which year did Abu Talib die? He died in the 10th year? The 10th year after prophethood. when he passed away, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down this verse in he sent down another verse of so when Abu Talib died and these verses were revealed who came to the prophet sallall.aii Wasam and informed him met Abu Talib has died has passed away. He said take his body and bury it. Now what does this mean? Take his body and bury it. Is his body bathed? Is it to be bathed? No. Is it to be shrouded? No. Not in this way. They are not buried under the rights of the Muslim. Now Ali was the only one around to bury him. Why? Well is his son and the people of Quraysh the Mushri of Quraysh were in open war against Abu Talib. they were in very heightened you know state of aggression between him and Abu Talib and therefore no one else was around to bury him and so Ali was forced to do so. He went and he buried him. He was a young boy at the time. He said He said, "And then after I buried him, I returned back to him and informed him that I had buried him. And he said to me, bathe, bathe." And so from this we get this instance. This is a very as I mentioned very obscure situation very unlikely that a person will be in such an instance unless a person's parents are non-Muslim they die as non-Muslims and they don't have other family members to bury them or they don't have anyone else anyone who will bury them in this case the person would oversee the burial But with the situation of Ali, he is the one who physically buried the body. This is extremely unlikely for for one of us. Even if they had similar familial situation unless they happened to be a gravedigger too and they happen to be a mortician too. So for every Muslim who has non-Muslim family that have no other family and he happens to be a mortician, an undertaker and he happens to be a gravedigger then he needs to bathe after this instance. But this is about as rare as they say in Arabic. This is about you know as rare as climbing a tree and finding a cow up there at the top of the tree hanging out. This is extremely unlikely situation but it is there and the scholars list it and mention it for the purpose of posterity.
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