Chapter: The Recommendation to Increase the Number of Worshippers at the Funeral Prayer and to Arrange Them in Three Rows or More

932 – ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whenever a community of Muslims numbering one hundred performs the funeral prayer over a deceased person, all of them pleading for his forgiveness, their intercession on his behalf is accepted.” Recorded by Muslim.

933 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘No Muslim dies and forty men who associate nothing with Allah stand over his funeral but that Allah grants them intercession for him.’” Recorded by Muslim.

934 – Marthad ibn ʿAbd-Allāh al-Yaznī said: Whenever Mālik ibn Hubayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) led the funeral prayer and found the congregation to be small, he would divide them into three rows and then say, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Whoever has three rows pray over him has secured the reward.’” Recorded by Abū Dāwūd and al-Tirmidhī, and al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan (sound).

[Commentary]
Al-Nawawī, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “Chapter: The recommendation to increase the number of people praying over …”