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Sources and evidence
The rulings on this site link to the Qurʾān, a ḥadīth or a classical text, so you can check them yourself. Where scholars differ, we say so. Qurʾān quotations use the Saheeh International translation; the Arabic is taken unchanged from the Tanzil Uthmani text. Ḥadīth numbers follow sunnah.com.
Where the schools differ, we follow the majority Sunni position and say so: the ʿUmariyyatān and ʿawl follow ʿUmar’s ruling, which most Companions accepted and Ibn ʿAbbās did not; radd follows the Ḥanafī and Ḥanbalī schools. We are arranging a review by a qualified scholar. If you find an error, tell us.
Death and the funeral
- Qurʾān, Āl ʿImrān 3:185
Every soul will taste death.
- Qurʾān, al-Baqarah 2:156
Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.
- Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 2377 (ṣaḥīḥ)
What do I have to do with the world? I am not in the world except as a rider seeking shade under a tree, then he leaves it.
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 920
The Prophet ﷺ came to Abū Salamah as he died, closed his eyes, and said: when the soul is taken, the sight follows it. Then he prayed for him.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1315
Hurry with the funeral.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1280
It is not lawful for a woman who believes in Allah and the Last Day to mourn a dead person for more than three days, except her husband, for four months and ten days.
- Qurʾān, al-Baqarah 2:234
Those who are taken in death among you and leave wives behind: they shall wait four months and ten days.
- Qurʾān, al-Ṭalāq 65:4
For those who are pregnant, their term is until they give birth.
The washing, the shroud and the prayer
- Sunan Ibn Mājah 1465 (ḥasan)
The Prophet ﷺ told ʿĀʾishah: if you were to die before me, I would wash you, shroud you, pray over you and bury you.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1255
Begin with the right side and the parts washed in wuḍūʾ.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1253
Wash her three or five times or more if you see fit, with water and sidr, and put camphor in the last washing.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1264
The Prophet ﷺ was shrouded in three white Yemeni cotton sheets, with no shirt and no turban.
- Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3157 (graded weak)
Layla bint Qānif described Umm Kulthūm being shrouded in a lower garment, a shirt, a head covering, a cloak and an outer sheet. Al-Albānī graded the chain weak.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1276
Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr was martyred at Uḥud, and nothing could be found to shroud him in except his cloak.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1245
The Prophet ﷺ led the funeral prayer for al-Najāshī with the people in rows behind him, and said four takbīrs.
- Qurʾān, al-Fātiḥah 1:1–7
The Opening.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1335
Ibn ʿAbbās recited al-Fātiḥah in the funeral prayer and said: so that you know it is the Sunnah.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3370
The Prophet ﷺ taught how to send blessings upon him: O Allah, send Your mercy on Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, as You sent Your mercy on Ibrāhīm…
- Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 963
ʿAwf ibn Mālik memorised the Prophet’s duʿāʾ in a funeral prayer: O Allah, forgive him, have mercy on him…
Condolence
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1284
To Allah belongs what He took and what He gave, and everything with Him has an appointed term, so be patient and hope for reward. The Prophet ﷺ wept and said: this is mercy.
- Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3132 (ḥasan)
Prepare food for the family of Jaʿfar, for what has happened has occupied them.
- Sunan Ibn Mājah 1601 (ḥasan)
No believer consoles his brother in a calamity but Allah will clothe him in garments of honour on the Day of Resurrection.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1248
A Muslim whose three children die before puberty will be granted Paradise by Allah, out of His mercy to them.
Law and practice in the United States
- Federal Trade Commission, The FTC Funeral Rule
Funeral homes must give you an itemized General Price List. No state law requires routine embalming. You may buy a casket elsewhere without a fee. No state law requires an outer burial container, though many cemeteries do.
- U.S. Department of State, Death of a U.S. Citizen Abroad
Consular officers help families with local burial or the return of remains, and can issue a Consular Report of Death Abroad. The Department cannot pay to return remains.
- International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Resolution 26 (1/4), 1988
The Academy permitted organ donation and transplantation under conditions, including the donor’s consent and no sale of organs. Other scholars and councils disagree.
Wills and bequests
- Qurʾān, al-Baqarah 2:180
Prescribed for you when death approaches any one of you, if he leaves wealth, is that he should make a bequest…
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2738
It is not permissible for any Muslim who has something to will to stay for two nights without having his will written and kept ready with him.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2742
Saʿd asked to bequeath his wealth; the Prophet ﷺ allowed a third, and said: a third, and a third is much.
- Sunan Abī Dāwūd 2870 (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ)
Allah has given everyone who has a right his due, so there is no bequest for an heir.
- al-Sirājiyyah (al-Sajāwandī), opening chapter
Four rights attach to the estate in order: the funeral and burial, the debts, bequests from a third of what remains, then the heirs.
The shares
- Qurʾān, al-Nisāʾ 4:11
For the male, what is equal to the share of two females. If there are only daughters, two or more, for them is two thirds; if only one, for her is half. For the parents, to each a sixth if he left children; if no children and the parents alone inherit, the mother has a third; if he had brothers or sisters, the mother has a sixth, after any bequest or debt.
- Qurʾān, al-Nisāʾ 4:12
For you is half of what your wives leave if they have no child; if they have a child, a fourth. For the wives is a fourth if you leave no child; if you leave a child, an eighth, after any bequest or debt.
- Qurʾān, al-Nisāʾ 4:176
If a man dies leaving no child but a sister, she has half. If two sisters or more, they have two thirds. If there are brothers and sisters, the male has the share of two females.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6732
Give the fixed shares to those entitled to them; whatever remains goes to the nearest male relative.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6736
Ibn Masʿūd ruled for a daughter, a son’s daughter and a sister: the daughter a half, the son’s daughter a sixth, and the rest to the sister.
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6764
A Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever, nor a disbeliever from a Muslim.
- Ruling of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, followed by the majority; recorded in al-Sirājiyyah
With a spouse and both parents, the mother takes a third of what remains after the spouse, so the father keeps twice her share. Ibn ʿAbbās held a third of the whole.
- Consensus of the scholars; reported in Sunan Abī Dāwūd 2894 (chain graded weak)
A grandmother receives a sixth, shared if there are two. Al-Mughīrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ gave a grandmother a sixth; the chain is graded weak, and the ruling rests on the Companions’ agreement.
- Ruling of Zayd ibn Thābit; the Ḥanafī view follows Abū Bakr. al-Sirājiyyah, chapter on the grandfather
The Ḥanafī school, following Abū Bakr and Ibn ʿAbbās, holds that the grandfather excludes the full and paternal siblings as the father does. The Mālikī, Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī schools follow Zayd ibn Thābit: the grandfather shares with them. With no other share-holders he takes the better of a third of the estate or a brother’s share; with other share-holders, the best of a sixth of the estate, a third of what remains, or a brother’s share.
- al-Mushtarakah, decided by ʿUmar; al-Sirājiyyah
Husband, mother, two or more maternal half-siblings and full brothers: the fixed shares take the whole. The Ḥanafī and Ḥanbalī schools give the full brothers nothing; the Mālikī and Shāfiʿī schools let them share the maternal siblings’ third.
- Ruling of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb with the Companions; al-Sirājiyyah, chapter on ʿawl
When the fixed shares exceed the estate, the base is raised and every share is reduced in proportion. Ibn ʿAbbās dissented.
- Ḥanafī and Ḥanbalī schools; al-Sirājiyyah, chapter on radd
With no residuary heir, the surplus returns to the fixed-share heirs in proportion, except the spouses. The classical Mālikī and Shāfiʿī position gives it to the public treasury instead.
Ḥadīth wording checked on October 6, 2026 against the open fawazahmed0 ḥadīth editions. Classical rulings cite al-Sirājiyyah of al-Sajāwandī (12th century), a standard Ḥanafī text on inheritance; a public-domain manuscript is held by the Library of Congress.