over the others, and hanut (1) is placed between them (2). The body is then laid upon the sheets on its back. Cotton scented with hanut is tucked between his buttocks and secured with a length of cloth whose ends are split so that it draws together the buttocks and the private parts; more cotton is placed at the facial openings and on the points of prostration. He is wrapped in the sheets, the greater surplus of the shroud being gathered at his head. If he is shrouded in a shirt, a waist-wrapper, and a single sheet, that is permissible. It is disliked to wrap his head as with a turban, or to use saffron.

A woman is shrouded in five pieces: a waist-wrapper, a head-covering, a shirt, and two sheets. The obligatory minimum, however, is a single cloth that covers the entire body. Silk is forbidden. Nor is a shroud to be exacted (3) for someone who is destitute if the body can be covered with grass or something similar.

Section
On the Funeral Prayer

The imam stands by the chest of a deceased man and by the middle of a deceased woman—preferably so—and pronounces four takbirs. After seeking refuge he recites al-Fatiha in the first; in the second he invokes blessings upon the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as in the tashahhud; and in the third he supplicates for the deceased, saying:

“O Allah, forgive our living and our dead, those present and those absent, our young and our old, our males and our females. You know our movements and our resting-places, and You are capable of all things. O Allah, whomever You keep alive from among us, keep him alive upon Islam and the sunnah, and whomever You cause to die, cause him to die upon them. O Allah, forgive him, have mercy on him, grant him well-being and pardon him; honor his hospitality (4) and widen his entrance; wash him with water, snow, and hail; cleanse him (5) of sins and misdeeds just as a white garment is cleansed of…"