graves. Send blessings upon me wherever you may be, for your blessings reach me.” (1)
He also said, “Increase your invocation of blessings upon me on Friday and on the night before Friday, for your blessings are presented to me.” They asked, “How will our blessings be presented to you when you have decayed?”—that is, when your body has decomposed. He replied, “Allah the Exalted has forbidden the earth to consume the bodies (2) of the prophets.” (3)
Thus he informed us that he hears the blessings and salutations of one who is near, and that they are conveyed to him from one who is distant. (4)
He further said, “May Allah (5) curse the Jews and the Christians; they took the graves of their prophets as places of prayer,” warning against what they had done. ʿAʾisha said, “Had it not been for that, it would have been exposed (6)
= (p. 58): “established” (thabit).
(1) Musnad Ahmad 8804 and Sunan Abi Dawud 2041, from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah. Ibn Taymiyyah remarks in al-Ikhnaiyyah, p. 105: “A fair (hasan) tradition whose transmitters are well-known and reliable; ‘Abd Allah b. Nafiʿ al-Sayigh is somewhat weak, yet not to the extent that the report is unusable.”
(2) Copies A and B read: “flesh (lahum).”
(3) Musnad Ahmad 16162; Abi Dawud 1047; al-Nasaʾi 1374; Ibn Majah 1085, from the hadith of Aws b. Abi Aws—without the phrase “and on the night before Friday.” Ibn Taymiyyah states in al-Ikhnaiyyah, p. 144: “It has corroborating chains,” and al-Albani declared it authentic. Al-Bayhaqi (3/249) also narrates from Anas, marfuʿ: “Increase your prayers upon me on Friday and the night before Friday.”
(4) The phrase “and that will reach him from” is missing in copy D; copy B has: “that will reach him.”
(5) Copy B has: “May the curse of Allah be upon …”
(6) Copy A reads: “abriza (prominent).”