by “your dying ones” are those whose death is imminent, because they are still in the realm of moral responsibility and may benefit from being prompted, thereby remembering the testimony of faith and pronouncing it, and thus becoming among the people of Paradise.
As for prompting him after death, then, besides being a (blameworthy) innovation for which no basis has come in the sunnah, it is of no benefit, because he has passed from the realm of moral responsibility to the realm of recompense, and because he is no longer capable of remembering: “that you may warn whoever is alive.”
The manner of prompting is to instruct him to pronounce the testimony of faith. What is mentioned in some books—that it should merely be recited in his presence and that he should not be instructed to say it—contradicts the sunnah of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as I have established in Book of Funerals (pp. 10–11). So refer to it.
- “If one of you becomes drowsy in the mosque on Friday, let him move from that place to another.”
It was recorded by Abu Dawud (1119), al-Tirmidhi (2/404), Ibn Hibban (571), al-Hakim (1/291), al-Bayhaqi (3/237), Ahmad (2/22, 32), and Abu Nuʿaym in Akhbar Asbahan (2/186), through several routes from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, from Nafiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say it.
Al-Tirmidhi said: “A good, authentic hadith!”
Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to the conditions of Muslim!” Al-Dhahabi concurred with him.
That is what they both said! Yet Ibn Ishaq was practising tadlis, and he related it using the ambiguous “from” formula in all the routes from him. It was apparently for this reason that al-Bayhaqi said immediately afterward: