Ibn Mājah and al-Tirmidhī have also transmitted this report, and al-Tirmidhī commented, “Bishr ibn Rāfiʿ is not strong in ḥadīth.”
I say: The scholars have differed over standing for a funeral—whether when the bier passes by or while one is escorting it. Numerous, well-known ḥadiths command such standing. Those who regard these reports—or the standing for a passing bier specifically—as abrogated base their view on the ḥadith of ʿAlī and on the present ḥadith of ʿUbādah. Yet accepting both is possible: the escorter stands only until the bier is taken down from the men’s shoulders, not until it is set in the grave-niche. Thus this ḥadith may either be harmonized with the others or treated as abrogating them. The rationale for “differing from them” has already been explained. Whoever dismisses the report does so on grounds of weakness, but that does not invalidate its use as supporting evidence for the general principle of opposing their practices.
(1) See Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Book of Funerals, chapter “Sitting before the bier is set down,” ḥadith no. 1020 (3/340).
(2) He is Bishr ibn Rafiʿ al-Harithi, Abū al-Asbāṭ al-Najrani. Aḥmad, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasāʾi, and Abū Ḥātim judged him weak, and al-Bukhārī said: “No one corroborates his narrations.” See: Ibn Ḥajar, Tahdhīb al-tahdhīb 1:448-450, no. 823.
(3) Al-Tirmidhi remarks: “This ḥadith is gharīb, and Bishr ibn Rafiʿ is not strong in ḥadith.” Sunan al-Tirmidhi 3/340. Hence the report is weak, though it is supported by the ḥadith of ʿAlī that the author will soon cite; see note 5 below.
(4) In the Damascus edition the wording is li’l-janāzah (“for the bier”). The author’s phrase li’l-mārrah is meant in the same sense, i.e. “for the passing funeral.”
(5) The corroborating report from ʿAlī is narrated by Muslim: “We saw the Messenger of Allah stood, so we stood; he sat, so we sat”—that is, with regard to a funeral. Other wordings state: “The Messenger of Allah stood, then sat,” and: “Indeed the Messenger of Allah stood, then sat.” Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Book of Funerals, chapter “Abrogation of standing for the bier,” ḥadith no. 962 (2/661-662).
(6) The printed edition adds: “both of them.”
(7) The printed edition also adds: “yakūn” (“to be”).