• Death: Condolence for the deceased
You have mentioned in the past that it is not proper that the relatives of a deceased person stay at a particular house or place for people to come and offer their condolences. In a book on Hadith I have read that when the news of the martyrdom of Zaid ibn Haritha and Jaffer ibn Abu Talib reached Madinah, the Prophet sat in the mosque and grief could be seen in his face. Muhammad Ali commenting on this Hadith says: "To sit in some place so that people may come and express their sympathy with and console the bereaved family, is, therefore, in accordance with the Prophet's practice." Please clarify.
The Hadith you have quoted mentions only that the Prophet sat in the mosque, but there is no mention in the Hadith itself that he sat there for the purpose of receiving condolences by his companions. We cannot conclude from that Hadith anything more than the fact that, on receiving the sorry news of the death of his commanders, the Prophet announced that to his companions and made himself available. He sat in the mosque, feeling very sad. It was only natural that his companions, particularly those who were close to him, should come to find out whether he was planning anything to support the Muslim army which suffered a defeat. Again, it is natural that those who arrived in the mosque should offer their condolences to the Prophet. This is exactly what I have said, that the offering of condolences should be left to the time when we meet the relatives of the deceased [ which may be immediately upon hearing the news of the death].Had the Prophet encouraged, or even permitted, the organizing of any type of function, or the assembly of the relatives in a particular place for people to come at a particular time to offer their condolences, as happens in many Muslim societies these days, these practices would have been followed each time one of the Muslims in Madinah died. It would have been reported to us, particularly since a good number of the Prophet's companions died in wars or in time of peace in those ten years when he founded the Muslim state in Madinah.
Muhammad Ali has based his conclusion on this single incident, which does not suggest what he has concluded. May I ask whether this Muhammad Ali is the same as the Quadiani person who has translated the Qur'an? If so, then you should not take what he says because he is not a proper source from which to learn about Islam.
• Death: Dispute about the faith of a dead womanWhen an Indian woman died there was a dispute about her religion. Muslims in the area insisted that she was a Muslim and wanted to have her buried. Hindus claimed that she belonged to their faith and they wanted to have her body cremated. Is there any way to ascertain the faith of a deceased person?
Faith and beliefs are questions of the mind. You cannot tell from looking at a person whether he belongs to the Islamic, Christian, Hindu faith or whether he is an atheist or an agnostic. There is simply no physical mark to indicate that. If this is true of a living person whom you can question about his faith or whose practices can be watched to determine whether he is a believer or not, it is certainly more true of a dead person with whom you cannot have any interaction. You cannot look for any mark on that person's body to know his religion.
I am at a loss to understand how such an issue arises only when a woman dies and only in connection with her burial. How is it that the deceased came to be the subject of dispute among the living? Was she known to offer her prayers and to attend to her other religious duties? If so, then surely many people would have known that and the matter would be easily resolved. Or has the dispute arisen because the woman simply did not know or did not care about religion? This sounds more like it.
Without wishing to make any judgment, the way a person is buried does not change anything about his faith or his standing on the day of judgment. What is more important is that no serious dispute should be allowed to develop between two communities over the issue. I hope the matter has been amicably resolved.
• Death: Expressions of sorrow that displease God
Back home people organize functions after the death of a person. They also mark the anniversary of the death each year. Are such practices allowed in Islam?
A Muslim accepts the death of a person who is dear to him as an act of God’s will, and he resigns himself to missing that person, hoping that he or she will receive God’s forgiveness and be admitted to heaven. He prays for the deceased person’ and requests God to forgive him or her and to bestow His mercy on them, and he may offer the pilgrimage, or Umrah, and pay money to poor people or to charities on their behalf. All this is acceptable and is bound to benefit the deceased.
The functions you mentioned at anniversaries or after certain days of the death of a person are of no value. Indeed they may be less than valuable if they included practices or statements that displease God, such as saying words or sentences that imply some sort of objection to God’s will. An example of that is when people say that a certain person has died too early, or before he completed his life, or that he has left young children with no one to care for them.
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