449 – Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “When one of you shrouds his brother, let him make his shroud good.” Related by Muslim (1).

Glossary of the ḥadith
• “Let him make his shroud good” (fa-l-yuḥassin kafanahu): some philologists vocalised the verb with an open ḥāʾ followed by a quiescent sīn, reading it as fa-l-yuḥsin (“let him do it well”). Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ said that the form with the open ḥāʾ is sounder, clearer, and closer to the wording of the ḥadith. What is meant by improving the kafan (shroud) is that it be clean, white, and concealing, and that it should be of the same kind as the clothing he wore in life.

Points derived from the ḥadiths

1. All four of these narrations deal with the rulings that pertain to the shroud of the deceased.
2. Hadith no. 446 indicates that the preferred method of shrouding is in three white cloths, for Allah, Exalted is He, would choose nothing but the best for His Prophet ﷺ. Imām Aḥmad said, “The soundest report concerning the Prophet’s shroud ﷺ is the narration of ʿĀʾishah, for she had the greatest knowledge of the matter.” Al-Tirmidhī remarked, “The statement that he ﷺ was shrouded in three white cloths is the most authentic account concerning his shroud.” Al-Ḥākim added, “The reports affirming that he ﷺ was shrouded in three white cloths, without a shirt or turban, have reached the level of tawātur, and this is the recommended practice according to the majority of scholars.”
3. The jurists state that the deceased is to be shrouded from his own estate; if he leaves no estate, the cost of his shroud is borne by those who were obliged to support him.
4. The manner of arranging the three cloths is to spread them one atop another, lay the deceased upon them, fold the right side of the uppermost cloth over him and then the left, and repeat the same procedure with the remaining cloths.