and a split cloth is tied over it. Its ends are drawn up like a loin-cloth, covering his buttocks and genitals. Whatever remains of the embalming mixture is placed over the facial openings and the points of prostration; if the whole body is perfumed, so much the better. Then the edge of the uppermost sheet is folded over his right side, and its other edge1 is folded over him; the second and third sheets are arranged in the same manner. The greater part of any surplus length should be gathered near his head. The sheets are then tied, and the knots are untied in the grave. If he is shrouded instead in a tunic, a waist-wrapper, and a single sheet, that is acceptable.

A woman is shrouded in five garments: a waist-wrapper, a head-cover, a tunic, and two sheets. The minimum obligation, however, is one cloth that covers her entire body.

Section

The Sunnah is for the imam to stand at the level of the man’s chest and, in the case of a woman, at her midsection, and to pronounce four takbirs. After seeking refuge, he recites al-Fātiḥah following the first takbir; in the second he invokes blessings upon the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—as in the tashahhud; and in the third he supplicates, saying:

“O Allah, forgive our living and our dead, those present and those absent, our young and our old, our males and our females. You know where we turn and where we lodge, and You have power over all things. O Allah, whoever among us You keep alive, keep him alive upon Islam and the sunnah, and whoever among us You cause to die, cause him to die upon them. O Allah, forgive him, have mercy on him, grant him well-being, and pardon him; honor his abode, broaden his entrance, wash him with water, snow, and ice, and purify him from sins and faults as a white garment is cleansed of filth. Replace his home with a better home and his spouse with a better spouse; admit him into Paradise, protect him from the punishment of the grave and the punishment of the Fire, and make spacious…"