16- The prophetic reports that deal with supplicating for the deceased are many, and none of them has been singled out as obligatory. What truly matters is that the prayer be offered with sincere devotion to the departed, for that is the very purpose for which the funeral prayer was legislated. Concerning this the Prophet ﷺ said: “When you perform the prayer over a dead person, dedicate your supplication to him with full sincerity” (reported by Abu Dawud, 3199). Nonetheless, great virtue remains in the invocations transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ and in the very words he himself chose; a Muslim should therefore seek them out in his own prayers, as will be detailed shortly.

Benefits
First. In Sharḥ al-Iqnāʿ it is stated: “It is recommended to use the reported formulas of supplication for the deceased.” Sabil al-Salam adds: “Two authentic hadiths have been established in this regard.” Scholars hold that the soundest supplications for the dead are found in those two reports: the hadith of ʿAwf b. Malik and the hadith of Abu Hurayrah. They are among the most beneficial prayers; ʿAwf b. Malik, when he heard the Prophet ﷺ recite one of them, wished that he himself had been the deceased for whom it was said. The wording gathers together the most comprehensive and beautiful petitions: forgiveness and mercy for the departed, cleansing him of sin, asking for a blessed final return, and protection from the evils of the Hereafter.

As for the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, it contains a plea for all Muslims—those present and absent, living and dead, young and old, male and female—asking for the best of all requests: steadfastness upon Islam, death upon faith, and refuge from misguidance and tribulation thereafter.

Second. Shaykh al-Islam was asked why sins are portrayed as being washed away with snow and hail, even though hot water is better at removing impurities. He replied that the heat generated by sins is most suitably extinguished by the intense cold of snow and hail.

Third. If the deceased is a small child, whether male or female, Imam Ahmad (17709) narrated from al-Mughira b. Shuʿba, in a hadith traced back to the Prophet ﷺ: “A miscarried fetus is prayed over, and supplication is made for its parents.”