Aslam

Praise be to Allah.

It was narrated in a saheeh hadeeth that Naajiyah ibn

Ka’b narrated that ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib (may Allaah be pleased with him)

said: “I said to the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), ‘Your old, misguided uncle

has died (he was referring to his father Abu Taalib). Who will bury

him?’ He said, ‘Go and bury your father.’ [I] said, ‘I will not bury

him, for he died as a mushrik.’ He said, ‘Go and bury him, then do not

do anything until you come to me.’ So I went and buried him, then I

came to him with traces of dust and earth on me. He told me to wash

myself, then he made du’aa’ for me in words that were more precious

to me than everything on earth.”

(al-Silsilah al-Saheehah, by al-Albaani,

no. 161)

The Shaykh said, commenting on this hadeeth:

1 – It is allowed for the Muslim to take

care of the burial of his mushrik relatives. That does not cancel out

his hatred of their shirk. Do you not see that ‘Ali (may Allaah be pleased

with him) initially refused to bury his father for that very reason,

as he said, “he died as a mushrik.” He thought that if he buried him

when this was the case, that this was included in the forbidden kind

of friendship as referred to in the aayah (interpretation of the meaning):

“O you who believe! Take not as friends

the people who incurred the Wrath of Allaah”

[al-Mumtahinah 60:13]

When the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) repeated the command to

bury his father, he hastened to obey him and he gave up the notion that

had initially occurred to him. This is what obedience means: that a

person gives up his opinion in response to the command of his Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). It seems to me that a son’s

burying his mushrik father or mother is the last act of good companionship

that the son can do for his mushrik parent in this world. But after

the burial, he cannot make du’aa’ for him or pray for forgiveness for

him, because of the unambiguous words of Allaah (interpretation of the

meaning):

“It is not (proper) for the Prophet and

those who believe to ask Allaah’s forgiveness for the Mushrikoon, even

though they be of kin”

[al-Tawbah 9:113]

If this is the case, then how can people pray for mercy

and forgiveness in the pages of newspapers and magazines for some of

the kuffaar, in death announcements for money! Let the one who has any

concern for his hereafter fear Allaah.

2 – It is not prescribed for him to wash

or shroud a kaafir, or to offer the funeral prayer over him, even if

he was a relative, because the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not tell ‘Ali to do

that. If that were permissible, he

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) would have said so, because

it is well known that it is not permitted for the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to delay explaining something

at the time when that information is needed. This is the view of the

Hanbalis and others.

3 – It is not prescribed for the relatives

of a mushrik to follow his funeral, because the Prophet

(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not do that in the case

of his uncle, although he was the one who was the most kind and compassionate

towards him, and he even prayed to Allaah to make his punishment the

lightest punishment in Hell.

In all of that there is a lesson for those who are deceived

by pride in their lineage and who do not strive for their Hereafter

with their Lord. Allaah indeed spoke the truth when He said (interpretation

of the meaning):

“there will be no kinship among them

that Day, nor will they ask of one another”

[al-Mu’minoon 23:101]

al-Silsilah al-Saheehah

by al-Albaani, p. 94