to follow his funeral procession; rather, he is simply placed in the grave if no one else is available to bury him.

Section

Shrouding the deceased is a communal obligation.

The minimum duty is to cover the whole body—except the head of a male in ihram and the face of a female in ihram—with a cloth that does not reveal the skin. The shroud must be of a type he customarily wore, unless he has stipulated otherwise.¹

The recommended practice is to shroud a man in three white cotton sheets. They are spread one atop the other, the body is laid on them face-up, then the uppermost sheet is folded: its left edge is brought over his right side, then its right edge over the left; the second and third sheets are wrapped in the same fashion. A woman is shrouded in five white² cotton garments: a waist-wrap, a head-covering, a tunic, and two sheets. A boy is wrapped in a single sheet,³ though three are permissible; a young girl is wrapped in a tunic and two sheets.

It is disliked to shroud the deceased in fabric made of hair, wool, saffron-dyed, madder-dyed, or patterned cloth.

It is unlawful to use leather, silk, or gold-embroidered material for the shroud.