- “Offer some of your prayers in your homes, and do not turn them into graves, as the Jews and Christians have made graves in their homes. A house in which the Quran is recited appears to the inhabitants of heaven just as the stars appear to the inhabitants of the earth.”
Al-Dhahabī recorded it in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (8/26–27) through al-Sarrāj: Abū Rajāʾ Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us from Abū al-Aswad, from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who said it... and he mentioned it.
Aḥmad also recorded it (6/65): Ḥasan narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us through the same chain, but without the words, “as the Jews and Christians have made...” to the end.
I say: This is a good chain of transmission, for Qutaybah’s transmissions from Ibn Lahīʿah are authentic, as was established earlier under hadith 957—the new edition of the second volume. For this reason, al-Dhahabī said after citing the hadith:
“The chain of transmission of this hadith is sound, and its text is good. It contains a prohibition against burial in homes, and it has a corroborating report through another route. He, peace and blessings be upon him, prohibited structures from being built over graves. If people were buried in their homes, cemeteries and homes would become one and the same. Prayer in a cemetery is prohibited, either as a matter of disapproval or as an outright prohibition. He, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘The best prayer of a man is in his home, except for the obligatory prayer.’ (1) It was therefore fitting that dwellings not be made into graves.
“As for his burial in the house of ʿĀʾishah—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—it was a distinction unique to him, just as he was uniquely granted that a cloth be spread beneath him in his niche grave, and that the people pray over him individually, without an imam. Thus, he was their imam, living and dead, in this world and the Hereafter. Likewise, the delay of his burial for two days was unique to him, unlike...”