then he keeps the masculine form; if he knows the deceased is a woman, he uses the feminine. When he is unsure, either usage is permissible. If he opts for the masculine, the sense is: “O Allah, forgive him,” meaning this very person before us; and if he says, “Forgive her,” he intends this janazah (funeral bier), for the term janazah is applied to both a man and a woman. Allah is the One who grants success.

936 – Abu Hurayrah, Abu Qatadah, and Abu Ibrāhīm al-Ashhali, from his father—who was a Companion, may Allah be pleased with them—narrated that the Prophet ﷺ performed the funeral prayer over a janazah and said:

“O Allah, forgive our living and our dead, our young and our old, our males and our females, those present and those absent. O Allah, whomever You keep alive among us, keep him alive upon Islam, and whomever You cause to die among us, cause him to die upon faith. O Allah, do not deprive us of his reward and do not test us after him.”

Related by al-Tirmidhi through the chains of Abu Hurayrah and al-Ashhali, and by Abu Dāwūd through the chains of Abu Hurayrah and Abu Qatadah. Al-Hakim said, “The narration of Abu Hurayrah is authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim.” Al-Tirmidhi reported that al-Bukhari considered the soundest version of this hadith to be that of al-Ashhali, and al-Bukhari also said, “The most reliable report in this chapter is the hadith of ʿAwf ibn Malik.”