MOURNING FOR THE DEAD
- deceased tortured for the weeping of the living,
* Narrated Abu Burda:
That his father said, "When Umar was stabbed, Suhaib started
crying: O my brother! 'Umar said, 'Don't you know that the Prophet
said: The deceased is tortured for the weeping of the living'?"
(Sahih Bukhari 2.377,
Sahih Bukhari 2.378,
Sahih Bukhari 2.378,
Sahih Bukhari 2.380)
Sahih Bukhari 2.376
talks about Jews, while
Sahih Bukhari 2.375
has A'isha contradicting
'Umar, saying that it applies only to nonbelievers.
- Muhammad forbade mourning,
* Narrated 'Aisha:
When the Prophet got the news of the death of Ibn Haritha,
Ja'far and Ibn Rawaha he sat down and looked sad and I was
looking at him through the chink of the door. A man came and
told him about the crying of the women of Ja'far. The Prophet
ordered him to forbid them. The man went and came back saying
that he had told them but they did not listen to him. The
Prophet said, "Forbid them." So again he went and came back for
the third time and said, "O Allah's Apostle! By Allah, they did
not listen to us at all." ('Aisha added): Allah's Apostle
ordered him to go and put dust in their mouths. I said, (to
that man) "May Allah stick your nose in the dust (ie. humiliate
you)! You could neither (persuade the women to) fulfill the
order of Allah's Apostle nor did you relieve Allah's Apostle
from fatigue. "
(Sahih Bukhari 2.386)
However, the next hadith allows a limited time of mourning.
- length of,
* Narrated Um-'Atiya:
We were forbidden to mourn for a dead person for more than three
days except in the case of a husband for whom mourning was allowed
for four months and ten days. (During that time) we were not
allowed to put ko,hl (Antimony eye power) in our eyes or to use
perfumes or to put on colored clothes except a dress made of 'Asb
(a kind of Yemen cloth, very coarse and rough). We were allowed
very light perfumes at the time of taking a bath after menses and
also we were forbidden to go with the funeral procession.
(Sahih Bukhari 1.310,
Sahih Bukhari 2.369,
Sahih Bukhari 2.370,
Sahih Bukhari 2.371)
see hadith above for Muhammad's forbidding of mourning.
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