and acting upon the general prohibition.
Section: As for burial at night, Ahmad said: There is no harm in that. He said: Abu Bakr was buried at night, and Ali buried Fatimah at night, and the hadith of Aisha: We heard the sound of shovels in the latter part of the night during the burial of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) (13). Among those who were buried at night are Uthman, Aisha, and Ibn Mas‘ud. Uqba ibn Amir, Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyab, ‘Ata’, al-Thawri, al-Shafi‘i, and Ishaq granted a concession for it. Al-Hasan disliked it, based on what Muslim narrated in his “Sahih” (14) that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) gave a sermon one day and mentioned a man among his companions who had passed away, had been shrouded in a meager shroud, and was buried at night, so the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) forbade that a man be buried at night unless a person is forced to do so. It has been reported from Ahmad that he said: This is the view I hold. Our evidence is what Ibn Mas‘ud narrated, saying: By Allah, I can almost hear the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) during the expedition of (15) Tabuk, while he was in the grave of Dhu al-Bijadayn, with Abu Bakr and Umar, saying: "Bring your brother close to me so I may support him in his niche (lahd)." Then he said, after finishing his burial and standing at his grave facing the Qiblah: "O Allah, I have reached the evening satisfied with him, so be satisfied with him." That was at night. He said: By Allah, I saw myself and wished I were in his place, and I had embraced Islam fifteen years before him, and he took him from the side of the Qiblah. Narrated by al-Khallal in his "Jami‘" (16). Ibn Abbas narrated that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) entered a grave at night, and a lamp was lit for him.
(12) In A and M: "nor". (13) Narrated by Imam Ahmad in: al-Musnad 6/62, 242, 274; and Ibn Abi Shaybah in: Chapter on what has been reported regarding burial at night, from the Book of Funerals, al-Musannaf 3/347. (14) In: Chapter on improving the shroud, from the Book of Funerals, Sahih Muslim 2/651. It was also narrated by Abu Dawud in: Chapter on the shroud, from the Book of Funerals, Sunan Abi Dawud 2/176; al-Nasa’i in: Chapter on the command to improve the shroud, from the Book of Funerals, al-Mujtaba 4/28; Ibn Majah in: Chapter on what has been reported regarding the times during which one should not pray over the deceased nor bury him, from the Book of Funerals, Sunan Ibn Majah 1/487; and Imam Ahmad in: al-Musnad 3/295. (15) In the original: "ghazah". (16) Abu Bakr al-Haythami attributed it to al-Tabarani in al-Awsat. See Majma‘ al-Zawa’id 3/43. Ibn Hajar attributed it in al-Isabah 2/330 to al-Baghawi.