Prayer

Attending a Funeral to Pray Against the Deceased

A student recounts a story of ʿUbayd ash-Shounizī attending the funeral of a Jaḥmite scholar. He explains that he attended not to honor him, but to pray against him, asking Allah ﷻ to punish him for his denial of key Islamic beliefs.

September 7, 2016

Reader:

Here is a story in relation to the Jaḥmites, which al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī narrated in his Tārikh Baghdād in the sixty sixth page of the seventh volume, under the biography of Bishr al-Mirisī, the Jaḥmite, he narrated, “When Bishr al-Mirisī died, no one from the people of knowledge or the Sunnah attended his funeral prayer except ʿUbayd ash-Shounizī. So when he returned from the funeral of al-Mirisī the people of Sunnah confronted him.

They said, O’ enemy of Allah ! You claim to be a person of Sunnah and Jamāʿah while you attend the funeral of al-Mirisī?”

He replied, “Give me respite until I can inform you [of my excuse]. I did not attend his funeral prayer hoping for the reward that is gained for attending the funeral prayer. When he was placed in his grave I stood in the line and I said,

“O Allah ! This servant of yours did not believe in seeing you in the hereafter, so – O’ Allah block him from seeing your face on the day when the believers will see it.

O Allah ! This servant of yours did not believe in the punishment of the grave, so – O’ Allah , punish him today in his grave with a punishment that no one from the creation has been punished with before.

O Allah ! This servant of yours denied the scales, so – O’ Allah , make his scale [of good deeds] light on the Day of Judgment.

O Allah! This servant of yours denied the Intercession, So – O’ Allah , do not allow any of your servants to intercede for him on the Day of Judgment.”

So they held their peace and laughed.