Chapter: Visiting the deceased person after he has been put in his shroud

Abu Bakr came riding his horse from his dwelling place in As-Sunh. He got down from it, entered the Mosque and did not speak with anybody till he came to me and went direct to the Prophet, who was covered with a marked blanket. Abu Bakr uncovered his face. He knelt down and kissed him and then started weeping and said, "My father and my mother be sacrificed for you, O Allah's Prophet! Allah will not combine two deaths on you. You have died the death which was written for you." Narrated Abu Salama from Ibn `Abbas : Abu Bakr came out and `Umar, was addressing the people, and Abu Bakr told him to sit down but `Umar refused. Abu Bakr again told him to sit down but `Umar again refused. Then Abu Bakr recited the Tashah-hud (i.e. none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and Muhammad is Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)) and the people attended to Abu Bakr and left `Umar. Abu Bakr said, "Amma ba'du, whoever amongst you worshipped Muhammad, then Muhammad is dead, but whoever worshipped Allah, Allah is alive and will never die. Allah said: 'Muhammad is no more than an Apostle and indeed (many) Apostles have passed away before him..(up to the) grateful.' " (3.144) (The narrator added, "By Allah, it was as if the people never knew that Allah had revealed this verse before till Abu Bakr recited it and then whoever heard it, started reciting it.")

Um Al-`Ala', an Ansari woman who gave the pledge of allegiance to the Prophet (ﷺ) said to me, "The emigrants were distributed amongst us by drawing lots and we got in our share `Uthman bin Maz'un. We made him stay with us in our house. Then he suffered from a disease which proved fatal when he died and was given a bath and was shrouded in his clothes, Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) came I said, 'May Allah be merciful to you, O Abu As-Sa'ib! I testify that Allah has honored you'. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, 'How do you know that Allah has honored him?' I replied, 'O Allah's Messenger (ﷺ)! Let my father be sacrificed for you! On whom else shall Allah bestow His honor?' The Prophet (ﷺ) said, 'No doubt, death came to him. By Allah, I too wish him good, but by Allah, I do not know what Allah will do with me though I am Allah's Messenger (ﷺ). ' By Allah, I never attested the piety of anyone after that."

When my father was martyred, I lifted the sheet from his face and wept and the people forbade me to do so but the Prophet (ﷺ) did not forbid me. Then my aunt Fatima began weeping and the Prophet (ﷺ) said, "It is all the same whether you weep or not. The angels were shading him continuously with their wings till you shifted him (from the field). "