and thereafter the shroud is tied, the knots being undone once the body is placed in the grave.
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It is recommended to shroud a man in three white cotton lifāfahs (wrappers). Should he instead be wrapped in a qamīs (long shirt), an izār (waist-sheet), and a single lifāfah, that is permissible; however, to use the three wrappers in addition to both the shirt and the waist-sheet runs contrary to the indication of the hadith.
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It is recommended to shroud a woman in five white cotton garments: an izār, a khimār (head-cover), a qamīs, and two lifāfahs.
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It is recommended that a boy be shrouded in a single garment, though three garments are permissible.
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It is recommended that a young girl be shrouded in a qamīs and two lifāfahs without a khimār, for she had no need of it in life and therefore none after death.
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What is obligatory for any deceased person—young or old, male or female—is one garment that covers the entire body.
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As for Hadith 447: its background is that ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy ibn Salūl, the chief of the hypocrites in Madinah, once clothed al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the Prophet’s uncle, when the latter was brought captive after the Battle of Badr. Ibn Ubayy was a leader of standing among his tribe, the Khazraj, while his son ʿAbd Allāh was among the righteous Companions. Acting in line with the Prophet’s ﷺ policy, he requested a shirt from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to shroud his father. The Prophet ﷺ gave him his own shirt, led the funeral prayer over Ibn Ubayy, and attended his burial. Thereafter Allah revealed: “And never offer the funeral prayer for any of them who dies, nor stand at his grave” (al-Tawbah 9:84).
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This action of the Prophet ﷺ was thus abrogated by that noble verse: Allah forbade him to perform the funeral prayer for a hypocrite or to stand by the grave of any of them after burial to supplicate; these rites are reserved for believers.
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The hadith is further set against the report that when ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ubayy had already been placed in his grave, the Prophet ﷺ ordered that he be taken out and dressed him in his shirt. ⦗Bukhārī 1285; Muslim 2773⦘.