wash his wife. Anas ﵁, for instance, directed that Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn perform his washing. After the executor, the next entitled to wash the deceased is his father, for no one is more affectionate and tender toward a son; then comes the grandfather, who shares that same compassion; after that the nearer and then the more distant agnatic relatives, and finally an unrelated outsider. This hierarchy applies when all of them are able to perform the washing correctly and wish to do so; otherwise, the person who is knowledgeable about the rulings of the washing takes precedence over one who is not.

A woman, by contrast, is washed by women. The one with the strongest claim to wash a deceased woman is the person she designated in her will; if she named a particular woman and that woman is competent, she is given priority. Next in line are her female relatives, according to their closeness.

Thus a woman’s washing follows that order, while a man is washed by men as outlined earlier. Each spouse, however, may wash the other: a husband may wash his wife and a wife may wash her husband, for Abū Bakr ﵁ instructed that his wife wash him, and ʿAlī ﵁ washed Fāṭimah. Similar cases are reported from other Companions as well.