from your shoulders.” An exception is someone who has drowned: it is recommended to delay his burial, lest the water have submerged him and obscured his signs of life.

Section: Acts of Worship Incumbent upon the Living Concerning the Deceased

When a person dies, his obligations of worship cease. For this reason, Mālik—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—said that the deceased is perfumed for burial even if he was in ihrām, the state of pilgrimage consecration. Certain duties concerning him then devolve upon the living. These are four: washing him, shrouding him, offering the funeral prayer over him, and burying him.

Washing the deceased is an established sunnah for all Muslims except those martyred in battle. Allah prescribed it for earlier and later generations. It is related that when Adam—peace and blessings be upon him—died, burial perfume and a shroud were brought from Paradise. The angels descended, washed him, shrouded him in an odd number of cloths, and perfumed him. One of the angels stepped forward and led the funeral prayer over him, while the others stood in rows behind him. They then buried him, laid him in the side niche of his grave, and set mud bricks over him. His son Seth was with them. When they had finished, they told him: “Do likewise with your children and your brothers, for this is your prescribed practice.”

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Responsibility for this sunnah, however, may be particular or general. If the deceased leaves wealth, its cost is specifically chargeable to his estate and must be met from it. If he leaves no wealth, responsibility for washing him falls specifically upon whoever is obliged to provide his shroud. That person must either undertake the washing himself or hire someone at his own expense. If the deceased has no relative upon whom this obligation falls, responsibility extends to everyone else, and they must undertake it as a collective duty. How the washing is performed will be discussed in its proper place in this book, Allah Most High willing.

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It has also been said that washing the deceased is obligatory. This was the position of Abd al-Wahhāb. Those who expressly held this view cited the Prophet’s words—peace and blessings be upon him—concerning his daughter—may Allah Most High be pleased with her—“Wash her three times,” and his words concerning the man in ihrām, “Wash him,” on the grounds that a command entails obligation. This, however, is not a clear proof, because the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—command