his legs would become exposed; and whenever they covered his legs, his head came uncovered. The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—thereupon said, “Cover his head with it, and place some idhkhir over his feet.”

The jurists agree that, as a rule, the deceased’s head is to be covered and he is to be perfumed—except for one who dies while in a state of consecration (iḥrām), for here they differed:
• Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfah held that a muḥrim is treated like anyone else.
• Al-Shāfiʿī held that the muḥrim’s head is not to be covered and no perfume is to be applied.

The cause of their disagreement is the apparent conflict between a specific text and a general one.

The specific text is the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās: “A man whose mount had thrown him was brought to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—after he had died while in iḥrām. The Prophet said, ‘Shroud him in his two garments, wash him with water and lote leaves, and do not cover his head or touch him with perfume, for he will be raised on the Day of Resurrection reciting the talbiyah.’”

The general text is the unqualified command to wash the dead. Those who considered the pilgrim an exception on the strength of this ḥadīth—just as the martyrs of Uḥud are an exception—took the ruling given by the Prophet, peace be upon him, for one individual to apply to all and said, “A muḥrim’s head is not to be covered, nor is perfume to be used.”

Those who preferred reconciliation over exception replied, “The ḥadīth of that Bedouin applies only to him and is not extended to anyone else.”

[Chapter Four: The Manner of Walking with the Funeral]

Chapter Four deals with how one should walk with the funeral procession. The scholars disagreed over the Sunnah in this matter. The people of Madinah held that the Sunnah is to walk in front of the bier, whereas the Kūfans, Abū Ḥanīfah, and others maintained that walking behind it is superior.

The reason for their disagreement is the divergent reports each party received from its predecessors and upon which it acted. Mālik transmitted, in mursal form, a report from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—about walking in front of the bier, as well as similar reports from Abū Bakr and ʿUmar; al-Shāfiʿī adopted this view.

The Kūfans relied on what they narrated from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib through the chain of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abzā: “I was walking with ʿAlī in a funeral while he held my hand, and he was walking behind the bier, whereas Abū Bakr and ʿUmar were walking in front of it. I remarked on this to him, and he said, ‘The merit of the one who walks behind it over the one who walks in front is like the merit of the obligatory prayer over a voluntary one. They know that full well, but they are easy-going men who make things easy for the people.’”