The Prohibition of Prayer for the Funeral of Hypocrites

Allah commands His Messenger to disown the hypocrites, to abstain from praying the funeral prayer when any of them dies, from standing next to his grave to seek Allah's forgiveness for him, or to invoke Allah for his benefit. This is because hypocrites disbelieved in Allah and His Messenger and died as such. This ruling applies to all those who are known to be hypocrites, even though it was revealed about the specific case of `Abdullah bin Ubayy bin Salul, the chief hypocrite. Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn `Umar said, "When `Abdullah bin Ubayy died, his son, `Abdullah bin `Abdullah, came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and asked him to give him his shirt to shroud his father in, and the Messenger did that. He also asked that the Prophet offer his father's funeral prayer, and Allah's Messenger ﷺ stood up to offer the funeral prayer. `Umar took hold of the Prophet's robe and said, `O Allah's Messenger! Are you going to offer his funeral prayer even though your Lord has forbidden you to do so' Allah's Messenger ﷺ said,

«إِنَّمَا خَيَّرَنِي اللهُ فَقَالَ:

Commentary

It stands established from Sahih Ahadith, and confirmed by a consensus of the Muslim Ummah on it that this verse was revealed at the time of the death of the hypocrite, ` Abdullah ibn Ubaiyy, and about the Salah of-Janazah for him. Then, it also stands established from the report in Sahih of Muslim and the Sahih of Al-Bukhari that the Holy Prophet ﷺ offered Salah of Janazah for him. After he had done it, this verse was revealed. And thereafter, he never offered the Salah of Janazah for any munafiq (hypocrite).