or from America, and the wait may drag on for a day or two. This is an injustice to the deceased and a breach of the Messenger’s ﷺ directive, “Hasten with the funeral.” If his relatives arrive after he has already been buried, they may perform the funeral prayer at his grave; the matter is flexible, and praise belongs to Allah. If, however, the burial is delayed until they come, what benefit does that bring him? He gains nothing from it except the supplication made for him during the prayer—and that can still be obtained when they pray over him at his grave. There is, therefore, absolutely no grounds for keeping the body in custody.

Someone might ask, “Did not the Prophet ﷺ die on Monday and yet was not buried until the night of Wednesday?” We reply, “Yes, but the Companions—may Allah be pleased with them—did not wish to bury the Messenger of Allah ﷺ until they had appointed a caliph over Allah’s servants after him, lest the earth remain without Allah’s representative. That is why, once the pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—was completed, they buried the Prophet ﷺ. This is a manifest, clear rationale.”

His ﷺ words, “If it is righteous, then you are advancing it toward something better; and if it is otherwise …,” teach us that one should allude to objectionable matters without using objectionable expressions. The antonym of “righteous” is “corrupt,” yet the Prophet ﷺ avoided that term and instead said, “and if it is other than that.” This exemplifies refined speech: the meaning is the same, but courteous phrasing has an extraordinary impact. Consider the Almighty’s statement about the jinn: “And we do not know whether evil is intended for those on earth, or whether their Lord intends for them guidance” (Q 72:10). When they wished to speak of good, they attributed it to