According to the school, it is recommended to postpone the burial of a drowned person, lest the water that engulfed him should have masked any remaining signs of life.
The Qadi said: If this precaution is advised for one who has drowned, it is even more fitting in the case of many illnesses—such as vascular collapse and the like, well-known to physicians—to the point that some doctors state that those who appear lifeless and make no sound should not be buried until three days have elapsed.
Chapter Two
Washing the Deceased
This chapter comprises four sections:
- The legal ruling on washing.
- Which deceased persons must be washed.
- Who may perform the washing and the ruling concerning the washer.
- The manner of washing.
Section One: The Legal Ruling on Washing
With respect to its ruling, some hold that washing the dead is a communal obligation (farḍ kifāyah), while others consider it a communal Sunnah; both opinions exist within the madhhab.
The reason for this divergence is that the practice has been transmitted by deed rather than by explicit statement, and an action, in itself, carries no wording that clearly indicates obligation or otherwise. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb argued for its obligatoriness, citing the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—words regarding his daughter: “Wash her three times, or five,” and his instruction concerning the pilgrim who died in a state of consecration: “Wash him.” Those who view these expressions as merely teaching the procedure, not issuing a command to wash, do not deem washing obligatory; whereas those who understand them to contain both a command and an explanation judge it obligatory.
Section Two: Those Who Must Be Washed
As for the deceased whose bodies must be washed, the scholars unanimously agree that every Muslim who dies and was not slain amid combat with the unbelievers is to be washed. They differ, however, over the washing of the martyr, the funeral prayer for him, and the washing of a non-Muslim.
Concerning the martyr—meaning one killed in battle by the polytheists—the majority hold that he is not to be washed, citing the report: “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—ordered that the slain at Uhud be buried in their garments and that no prayer be offered over them.”
Al-Hasan and Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, on the other hand, maintained: “Every Muslim is to be washed, for every deceased person is in a state requiring major ritual purification.”