In Yūnus ibn Bukayr’s Maghāzī it is stated: “His brain boils until it pours down over his feet.” Al-Suhaylī cites this wording.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bazzār said in his Musnad: “ʿUmar”—that is, ʿUmar ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Mujālid—“narrated to us; my father narrated to us, from Mujālid, from al-Shaʿbī, from Jābir, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked—or it was said to him—‘Have you benefited Abū Ṭālib?’ He replied: ‘I removed him from the Fire to a shallow pool of it.’” Al-Bazzār is the sole transmitter of this report.

Al-Suhaylī remarked: “The Prophet ﷺ did not accept his uncle al-ʿAbbās’s testimony that Abū Ṭālib had uttered the word of faith, and instead said, ‘I did not hear it,’ because at that time al-ʿAbbās was still an unbeliever, whose testimony was therefore inadmissible.”

I say: In my view that report is not sound, for its chain is weak, as noted earlier. What supports this is that al-ʿAbbās subsequently asked the Prophet ﷺ about Abū Ṭālib, and the Prophet gave him the answer already cited. Even if the report were authentic, it is conceivable that Abū Ṭālib uttered the statement only when confronted by the angel after the death-rattle—at which point faith is of no benefit to any soul. Allah knows best.

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī narrated: Shuʿbah related to us, from Abū Isḥāq: I heard Nājiya ibn Kaʿb say: I heard ʿAlī say: “When my father died I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘Your uncle has passed away.’ He said, ‘Go and bury him.’ I said, ‘He died a polytheist.’ He replied, ‘Go and bury him, and do not do anything else until you return to me.’ So I went and buried him, then returned to him, and he ordered me to bathe.”

Al-Nasāʾī also recorded it—from Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from Ghundar, from Shuʿbah.

Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasāʾī likewise transmitted it through Sufyān, from Abū Isḥāq, from Nājiya, from ʿAlī: When Abū Ṭālib died, I said, “O Messenger of Allah, your misguided elderly uncle has died; who will bury him?” He said, “Go and bury your father—