Thread by @Realoilsheikh

IS IT PERMISSIBLE FOR A MUSLIM TO BURY HIS DISBELIEVING RELATIVE?

Ali Ibn Abi Taalib (RA) said: “I said to the Prophet (SAW), ‘Your old, misguided uncle has died. Who will bury him?’ He said: ‘Go and bury your father’ (that is, Ali may Allaah be pleased with him). He (Ali) said:

‘I will not bury him, because he died as a disbeliever.’ He (the Prophet - SAW) said:

‘Go and bury him, then do not do anything until you come to me.’ So I went and buried him, & came to him with traces of dust and earth on me. Then he instructed me to take bath,

and he made supplication for me in words that were more pleasing to me than everything on earth.”
Saheeh: as-Saheehah, no. (161)

Commenting on the above hadeeth, Shaykh al-Albaanee (RH) said:

1 - It is permissible for a Muslim to attend to the burial of his disbelieving

relative. This however doesn't negate the dislike he has for him due to his shirk or disbelief. Do you not see that Ali (RA) initially refused to bury his father & the reason he gave for that as contained in his saying was that: ‘He died as a disbeliever;’

he thought that burying him as a disbeliever may include him in the forbidden friendship that was mentioned in the saying of the Most High: “Take not as friends the people who incurred the Wrath of Allaah…”[Suratul Mumtahinah 13].

When the Prophet (SAW) reiterated the command to bury his father, he hastened to comply to it & he abandoned what he initially thought [to be correct]. This is what obedience means: that an individual abandons his opinion for the command of his Prophet (SAW).

It seems to me that a son burying his disbelieving father or mother is the last of what a son can do of good companionship for his disbelieving parent in this world. But after the burial, it is not right for him to make supplication for them or pray for forgiveness for them,

due to the explicit words of Allaah exalted:

"It is not (proper) for the Prophet and those who believe to ask Allaah’s Forgiveness for the Mushrikûn (polytheists, idolaters, pagans, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allaah) even though they be of kin...” [Suratul Tawbah 113].

If the issue is like this, what about those who pray for mercy & forgiveness in the pages of newspapers & magazines for some disbelievers, in death announcements for the sake of meagre amount of money? Let the one who has concern for the affair of his hereafter fear Allaah.

2 – It is not permissible for him to wash or shroud a disbeliever, or to perform the funeral prayer over him, even if he was his relative, because the Prophet (SAW) did not enjoin that on Ali. If that were permissible, the Prophet (SAW) would have explained it, because it is well

known that delaying the explanation of something at the time of need is not permissible. This is the view of the Hanbalee school of though and others. This is the view of the Hanbalee school of though and others.

3 – It is not permissible for the relatives of a disbeliever to follow his funeral, because the Prophet (SAW) did not do that with his uncle, despite the fact that he was the most kind & compassionate of mankind towards him, and he even supplicated to Allaah for him that

He should make his punishment the lightest punishment in Hell.

In all of that, there is a lesson for those who are beguiled by their lineages & do not work for their Hereafter with their Lord. Allaah the Most Great spoke the truth when He said:

There will be no kinship among them that Day, nor will they ask of one another.” [Suratul Mu'minoon 101].

Source: Nudhum al-Faraa’id mimma fee Silsilati al-Albaanee min Fawaa’id, vol. 1, p. 481-482 by Abdul-Lateef bin Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Abee Rabee’ as copied.