Abū Umāmah ibn Sahl also related, on the authority of a group of Companions (1), the practice of invoking blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ during the funeral prayer.
Yahyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Ansārī narrated from Sa‘īd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah, that he asked ‘Ubādah ibn al-Sāmit (2) about the funeral prayer. He replied, “By Allah, I shall tell you: you begin by declaring Allah’s greatness, then invoke blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ and say, ‘O Allah, Your servant so-and-so (3) used to associate no partners with You. You know him best. If he did good, increase his reward for it; if he did evil, pardon him. O Allah, do not deprive us of the reward on his account, and do not let us go astray after him.’”
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The purpose of the funeral prayer is to supplicate for the deceased. For this reason (4), supplications have been preserved and transmitted from the Prophet ﷺ in a way that the recitation of al-Fātihah and the invocation of blessings upon him ﷺ have not (5).
(1) Recorded by al-Bayhaqī in al-Sunan al-Kubrā (4:39). Also recorded by al-Shāfi‘ī in al-Umm (2:608), and through him by al-Bayhaqī in Ma‘rifat al-Sunan (5:299), with the wording: “A man among the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed him.”
(2) This is how al-Bayhaqī recorded it (4:40). The correct wording is: “From Sa‘īd ibn Abī Sa‘īd al-Maqburī, from his father, who asked Abū Hurayra,” as recorded by Mālik (609), ‘Abd al-Razzāq (6425), and Ibn Abī Shayba (11495).
(3) All manuscripts except k read: “so-and-so.”
(4) m, q, mb, n read: “and likewise.”
(5) That is, for this reason, recitation of al-Fātiha and invoking blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) during the funeral prayer were not preserved and transmitted from him as supplication for the deceased was preserved and transmitted. The particle mā in mā lam yunqal (“the non-transmission”) is nominalizing, with the resulting clause occupying an accusative syntactic position. The wording proved problematic because of min (“of”), so n reads: “and what was transmitted was transmitted from him”; however, this is contrary to the intended meaning.