487 – Jabir reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Do not bury your dead at night unless you are compelled to do so.” Recorded by Ibn Majah. Its root wording is found in Muslim, which states: “He forbade that a man be buried at night until the funeral prayer has been offered over him.” ⦗1⦘

– Degree of authenticity:
The hadith is sound, for its basis is in Muslim with the wording: “He ﷺ forbade that a man be buried at night until the prayer is offered over him, except when a person is forced to do so.”

– Points derived from the hadith:

1. The apparent sense of the narration is that burying the deceased at night is disliked, unless necessity calls for it—such as fear of the body’s deterioration—in which case there is no dislike.
2. The reason is indicated by the phrase “until the prayer is offered over him.” Preparing the body and performing the funeral prayer at night are likely to suffer neglect: the washing may be poorly done, the shroud inadequately prepared, and the number of worshipers few. By day, however, these matters are easily fulfilled.
3. If these requirements can be met at night, the disapproval mentioned in the report is lifted, and we return to the original ruling, which is the recommendation to hasten the funeral. Two hadiths have already been cited on this theme: “Hurry with the funeral, for if it was righteous…” etc. (Muslim 943), and the hadith, “It is not fitting for a corpse…"