from the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: 'We made a raid on a tribe of Juhaynah, and a man from the Muslims pursued a man from them. He struck him but missed him and struck himself with the sword.' The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: 'Your brother, O company of Muslims.' The people rushed to him and found that he had died. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) wrapped him in his clothes and his blood, and prayed over him. They said: 'O Messenger of Allah, is he a martyr?' He said: 'Yes, and I am a witness for him.' 'Amir ibn al-Akwa' dueled Marhab on the day of Khaybar, and he moved to strike him from below, but his sword recoiled upon him, and his soul departed therein. Thus, he was not distinguished from the martyrs by any different ruling, because he is a martyr of the battlefield, resembling one who is killed by the infidels. Through this, he differs from one who is [in that state] outside of the battlefield. As for one who falls from his mount, or is found dead with no mark upon him, he is to be washed. Ahmad explicitly stated this, and interpreted the hadith 'Bury them with their wounds' to mean that if he has a wound, he is not washed. This is the opinion of Abu Hanifah regarding the one who is found dead with no mark upon him. Al-Shafi'i said: 'He is never to be washed, due to the possibility that he died because of one of the causes of fighting.' We argue that the fundamental principle is the obligation of washing, so it cannot be dropped based on a mere possibility; and because the dropping of washing in the agreed-upon case is contingent upon the person being wounded, so it is not permissible to remove that from the level of consideration.
Section: As for those among the people of justice (Ahl al-'Adl) who are killed in the battlefield, their ruling regarding washing and the funeral prayer is the ruling of those killed in the battlefield of the polytheists, because 'Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) did not wash
(11) Juhaynah: A tribe from Quda'a. (12) 'Yasful': meaning he strikes him from below. (13) Narrated by Muslim, in: The Chapter on the Expedition of Dhu Qard and others, from the Book of Jihad. Sahih Muslim 3/1440. And Imam Ahmad, in: Al-Musnad 4/51, 52. (14) In manuscripts A and M: "wa-la" (and not). (15) Preceded on pages 467-469. (16) Omitted from: M.
