Whenever the necessity that permits a collective burial exists, the body to be placed first in the niche of the grave is the one who had memorised the greatest portion of the Quran, for he is the most deserving of precedence, honour, and distinction.

This indicates that knowledge of Allah’s Book elevates a person’s station and raises his rank, provided he seeks by that knowledge the Countenance of Allah and the Abode of the Hereafter. Merit is measured by beneficial knowledge, and that is a sound criterion, for the Hereafter is better and more enduring.

A martyr is not washed so that his blood remains upon him and the marks of jihad and martyrdom are not removed. Those signs will be his badge of honour on the Day of Resurrection, when he arrives with wounds that flow with musk while retaining the colour of blood. Likewise, the funeral prayer is not offered for him, because that prayer is an intercession seeking the remission of sins, and his martyrdom has already expiated and purified him. By the grace and favour of his Lord he has no need of it.

In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (1343) it is narrated from Jābir that “the Prophet ﷺ commanded that the martyrs of Uḥud be buried in their blood; they were neither washed nor was the funeral prayer performed over them.” Al-Shāfiʿī said: “Perhaps the wisdom in omitting the washing and the prayer is that they may meet their Lord with their wounds, and that Allah’s honouring of them renders any further prayer unnecessary.” Imām al-Ḥaramayn said: “We rely on the sound hadiths which state that they were neither washed nor prayed over.”

The scholars have differed concerning the ruling on one who is killed unjustly. The well-known view in the Ḥanbalī school, reported from Imām Aḥmad, is that he is neither washed nor prayed over. In Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ it is stated: “One who is killed unjustly outside of war is accorded the same ruling as the battlefield martyr: he is neither washed nor prayed over.” Abū Dāwūd (4772) and al-Tirmidhī (1421) narrated from Saʿīd ibn Zayd that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever is killed defending his blood is a martyr; whoever is killed defending his family is a martyr; and whoever is killed defending his property is a martyr.” Because they were killed without right, they resemble those slain by the disbelievers and therefore are not washed. Another report from Imām Aḥmad states that he is to be washed and the funeral prayer offered for him, and it is