Imām Aḥmad (1) said: “Yahyā narrated to us, from (2) Shuʿbah, and Ibn Jaʿfar—Shuʿbah narrated to us; Abū Jamrah (3) reported to me from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: ‘A red quilt was placed in the grave of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.’”

Muslim (4), al-Tirmidhī (5), and al-Nasāʾī (6) likewise transmitted it through several chains from Shuʿbah, and Wakiʿ also related it on Shuʿbah’s authority. Wakiʿ commented, “This was done exclusively for the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.” Ibn ʿAsākir recorded this remark.

Ibn Saʿd (7) said: “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī informed us; Ashʿath ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Ḥumrānī narrated to us, from al-Ḥasan, that a worn red quilt which the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to wear was spread beneath him.” He added, “The ground was moist.”

Hushaym transmitted from (10) Manṣūr, from al-Ḥasan, who said: “A red quilt that he had obtained on the Day of Ḥunayn was placed in the grave of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.” Al-Ḥasan explained, “It was placed there because the soil of Madinah is saline.”

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (11) reported: “Ḥammād ibn Khālid al-Khayyāṭ told us, from ʿUqbah ibn Abī al-Ṣaḥbāʾ, who said: I heard al-Ḥasan say: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, ‘Spread my quilt for me in my laḥd, for the earth has never touched the bodies of the prophets.’”

Al-Bayhaqī (13) narrated—through Musaddad, ʿAbd al-Wāḥid, Maʿmar, al-Zuhrī, and Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib—that ʿAlī said: “I washed the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and I looked for what is usually seen on the dead, yet I found nothing. He was fragrant in life and in death—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.”

He added: “Four people undertook his burial and shrouding, apart from the rest of the people: ʿAlī—”