Another group said: “He died on the day of a solar eclipse, and the Prophet was occupied with the eclipse prayer rather than the funeral prayer for him.”

Another group said: “There is no contradiction between these reports. He ordered that the funeral prayer be offered for him, so it was said that he prayed over him. He did not perform it himself because he was occupied with the eclipse prayer, so it was said that he did not pray over him.”

Another group said: “The affirmative report takes precedence, because its narrator possesses additional knowledge. When affirmation and negation conflict, affirmation takes precedence.” And Allah knows best.

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It was his practice, peace and blessings be upon him, not to offer the funeral prayer for someone who had killed himself (1), nor for someone who had misappropriated war spoils (2).

Reports from him differed regarding offering the funeral prayer for someone executed as a prescribed punishment, such as an adulterer stoned to death. It is authentically reported that he offered the funeral prayer for the woman from Juhaynah whom he had ordered to be stoned. ‘Umar said to him: “Do you pray over her, O Messenger of Allah, when she committed adultery?” He replied: “She has repented with a repentance that, if divided among seventy of the people of Medina, would suffice for them. Have you ever found repentance better than her offering her own life for Allah?” Muslim related this (3).

Al-Bukhārī related the account of Mā‘iz ibn Mālik in his Sahīh (4), and stated: “Then he was spoken of by