Ahmad (1/97, 131) and Abū Muḥammad al-Khuldī, in a fascicle of his “Fawāʾid” (folio 47/1), likewise transmit it through several chains from Abū Isḥāq, from Nājiya ibn Kaʿb, from ʿAlī who said:
“I said to the Prophet ﷺ, ‘Your misguided old uncle has died—who will lay him in his grave?’ He replied …” and he related the remainder of the report.
I say: This chain is authentic; all its transmitters are trustworthy, and they are narrators found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs except for Nājiya ibn Kaʿb, who is trustworthy according to al-Taqrīb. Al-Rāfiʿī declared the isnād sound, and al-Ḥāfiẓ [Ibn Ḥajar] followed him in al-Talkhīṣ, as I have explained in Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl (no. 707).
In the Musnad of Ahmad (1/103) and in the additional material recorded by his son (1/129–130) there is another route: al-Ḥasan ibn Yazīd al-Aṣamm related, “I heard al-Suddi Ismāʿīl narrate it from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, from ʿAlī,” adding at the end: “Whenever ʿAlī —may Allah be pleased with him—washed a deceased person, he would perform a full bath.”
I say: This chain is good; its narrators are those of Muslim except for this al-Ḥasan, who is truthful though prone to error, as stated in al-Taqrīb.
Benefits of the ḥadīth
- It is prescribed for a Muslim to undertake the burial of his polytheist relative, and this in no way conflicts with hating him for his associationism. Observe that ʿAlī —may Allah be pleased with him—initially declined to bury his father, excusing himself by saying, “He died a polytheist,” assuming that to bury him in such a state might constitute the forbidden allegiance referred to in the verse, “Do not ally yourselves with a people upon whom Allah is angry.” When the Prophet ﷺ repeated the order to bury him, however, ʿAlī hastened to comply, abandoning the view that had first occurred to him. Such is true obedience: for a person to set aside his own opinion in deference to the command of his Prophet ﷺ. It appears to me that a child’s burying of his polytheist father or mother is the last act of dutiful kindness the child is able to render