Al-Khallāl said: ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm in al-Raqqah informed me; Naṣr ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Sinjārī narrated to us; al-Athram narrated to us; I heard Abū Muḥammad Fūrān say: “A man had a dream in which he said, ‘I saw Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. I asked him, “What has become of you?” He replied, “I am among the Ten.” I asked, “Are you the tenth of them?” He said, “No, I am the eleventh.” ’
Al-Khallāl said: ʿAbd Allah ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb the Weigher related to us; al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Adramī narrated to us; Bundār ibn Bashshār said: “I saw Sufyān al-Thawrī in a dream and asked him, ‘What has become of you?’ He replied, ‘I have been granted far more than I ever hoped for.’ I said, ‘What is that inside your sleeve?’ He answered, ‘Pearls and rubies. The spirit of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal has just arrived among us, and Allah commanded that these be scattered over him. This share is mine.’ ”
Al-Khallāl said: Muḥammad ibn Ḥiṣn narrated to us: “I was told that when Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal passed away and the news reached al-Shāsh, some people hurried to one another saying, ‘Let us rise and perform the funeral prayer for Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal just as the Prophet ﷺ performed it for the Negus.’ (1) So they went out to the prayer ground, stood in rows, and offered the prayer for him.”
(1) The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, performed the funeral prayer for the Negus; this report is transmitted by several Companions, may Allah be pleased with them. Al-Bukhari 3/163, Muslim no. 951, Abu Dawud no. 3204, al-Tayalisi no. 2300, Ibn Majah no. 1534, al-Nasaʾi 4/70 and al-Tirmidhi no. 1022 record it from Abu Hurayra. It is also related by al-Bukhari 3/163, Muslim no. 952, al-Nasaʾi 4/69, al-Tayalisi no. 1681 and Ahmad 3/295 from Jabir; by Muslim no. 953, al-Nasaʾi 4/70, Ibn Majah no. 1535, al-Tayalisi no. 749, Ahmad 4/431, 4/433 and al-Tirmidhi no. 1039 from Imran b. Husayn; by al-Tayalisi no. 1068 and Ahmad 4/7 from Hudhayfa b. Asid; by Ahmad 4/64 and 5/376 from Mujammiʿ b. Jariya al-Ansari; and by Ibn Majah no. 1538 from ʿAbd Allah b. ʿUmar.
Ibn al-Qayyim states in Zad al-Maʿad 1/519: “It was not the Prophet’s practice to offer the funeral prayer for every absent Muslim; many believers died while he was away, yet he did not pray over them.” Authentic reports, however, confirm that he did pray over the Negus as a funeral prayer.
Ibn al-Qayyim then sets out the scholarly dispute on this question and quotes his teacher Ibn Taymiyya, who maintained that the correct view is: the absentee may be prayed over if he dies in a land where no funeral prayer has been performed for him.