Allah’s protection is sought. Yet if she repents before death, Allah will accept her repentance, for anyone who turns back from any sin before he dies—Allah accepts his repentance.

Among the relevant reports is that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, wept when he saw Saʿd ibn ʿUbāda, may Allah be pleased with him, lying unconscious. The Companions who were present also began to weep. The Prophet then said, “Do you not hear? Do you not hear?”—the interrogative here functions as a command, meaning, “Listen, listen! Verily Allah does not punish for the tears of the eye or the sorrow of the heart, but He punishes for this,” and he pointed to his tongue, “or He shows mercy.”

That is to say, Allah does not punish for weeping or grief itself; rather, He punishes for the words and cries that issue from the tongue—or He may show mercy.

For instance, when a person is afflicted and says, with a heart that truly believes it, “Indeed, we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return,” conscious that all sovereignty, decree, and management belong to Allah, that we return to Him in all our affairs, and that we shall meet Him on the Day of Resurrection—if he holds this conviction and also says, as related in the ḥadīth of Umm Salama, may Allah be pleased with her, “O Allah, reward me in my calamity and grant me something better in exchange,” then he will be rewarded for it.

But should he instead cry out, “Wā jābalāh! Wā wailāh! Wā thubūrāh!” and the like, he will be punished for those utterances—Allah’s refuge is sought. The expression “wā jābalāh” means, “This deceased person was like a mountain, a refuge for me, and now I have lost him”; it is a form of lamentation coupled with praise.

In short, these ḥadīths teach that tears which flow spontaneously from natural feeling are unobjectionable. Wailing, eulogizing the dead with prolonged lament, slapping the cheeks, tearing the garment, plucking, shaving, or disheveling the hair, however, are all forbidden; they are among the practices from which the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, declared himself free. Allah alone grants success.