Sunan Abi Dawud

I was present with Marwan who asked AbuHurayrah: Did you hear how the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to pray over the dead? He said: Even with the words that you said. (The narrator said: They exchanged hot words between them before that.) Abu Hurairah said: O Allah, Thou art its Lord. Thou didst create it, Thou didst guide it to Islam, Thou hast taken its spirit, and Thou knowest best its inner nature and outer aspect. We have come as intercessors, so forgive him. Abu Dawud said: Shu'bah made a mistake in mentioning the name of 'Ali b. Shammakh. He said in his version: 'Uthman b. Shammas. Abu Dawud said: I heard Ahmad b. Ibrahim al-Mawsili say that Ahmad b. Hanbal said: In every meeting which I attended with Hammad b. Zaid he forbade to narrate this traditions from 'Abd al-Warith and Ja'far b. Sulaiman.

When the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) prayed over a dead person, he said: O Allah, forgive those of us who are living and those of us who are dead, those of us who are present and those of us who are absent, our young and our old, our male and our female. O Allah, to whomsoever of us Thou givest life grant him life as a believer, and whomsoever of us Thou takest in death take him in death as a follower of Islam. O Allah, do not withhold from us the reward (of faith) and do not lead us astray after his death.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) led us in prayer over bier of a Muslim and I heard him say: O Allah, so and so, son of so and so, is in Thy protection, so guard him from the trial in the grave. (AbdurRahman in his version said: "In Thy protection and in Thy nearer presence, so guard him from the trial in the grave) and the punishment in Hell. Thou art faithful and worthy of praise. O Allah, forgive him and show him mercy. Thou art the forgiving and the merciful one." AbdurRahman said: "On the authority of Marwan ibn Janah."

A negress (or a youth) used to sweep the mosque. The Prophet (ﷺ) missed him, and when he asked about him the people told him that he had died. He said: Why have you not informed me ? He said: Lead me to his grave. So they led him and he prayed over him.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) gave the people news of death of Negus on the day on which he died, took them out to the place of prayer, drew them up in rows and said: "Allah is Most Great" four times.

On the authority of his father: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) commanded us to proceed to the land of Negus. Mentioning the rest of the tradition he said that Negus said: I bear witness that he is the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and it is he about whom Christ son of Mary gave good news. It I were not in the land which I am, I would come to him and carry his shoes.

When Uthman ibn Maz'un died, he was brought out on his bier and buried. The Prophet (ﷺ) ordered a man to bring him a stone, but he was unable to carry it. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) got up and going over to it rolled up his sleeves. The narrator Kathir told that al-Muttalib remarked: The one who told me about the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: I still seem to see the whiteness of the forearms of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) when he rolled up his sleeves. He then carried it and placed it at his head saying: I am marking my brother's grave with it, and I shall bury beside him those of my family who die.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Breaking a dead man's bone is like breaking it when he is alive.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The niche in the side of the grave is for us and the excavation in the middle is for others.

Ali, Fadl and Usamah ibn Zayd washed the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) and they put him in his grave. Marhab or Ibn AbuMarhab told me that they also made AbdurRahman ibn Awf join them. When Ali became free, he said: The People of the man serve him.

That 'Abd al-Rahman b. 'Awf alighted in the grave of the Prophet (ﷺ). He said: I still seem to see the four of them.

Al-Harith left his will that Abdullah ibn Yazid should offer his funeral prayer; so he prayed over him. He then put him in the grave from the side of his legs and said: This is a Sunnah (model practice of the Prophet).

We went out with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to the funeral of a man of the Ansar, but when we reached the grave, the niche in the side had not yet been made, so the Prophet (ﷺ) sat down facing the qiblah, and we sat down along with him.

When the Prophet (ﷺ) placed the dead in the grave, he said: In the name of Allah, and following the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). This is Muslim's version.

I said to the Prophet (ﷺ): Your old and astray uncle has died. He said: Go and bury your father, and then do not do anything until you come to me. So I went, buried him and came to him. He ordered me (to take a bath), so I took a bath, and he prayed for me.

The Ansar came to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) on the day of Uhud and said: We have been afflicted with wound and fatigue. What do you command us? He said: Dig graves, make them wide, bury two or three in a single grave. He was asked: Which of them should be put first? He replied: The one who knew the Qur'an most. He (Hisham) said: My father Amir died on the day and was buried with two or one.

"And deepen (the graves)."

This tradition has also been transmitted by Sa'd b. Hisham b. 'Amir with a different chain of narrators.

'Ali said to me: I am sending you on the same mission as the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) sent me that I should not leave a high grave without leveling it and an image without obliterating it.

We were with Fudalah b. 'Ubaid at Rudis in the land of Rome. One of our Companions dies, Fudalah commanded us to dig his grave; it was (dug and) levelled. He then said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) commanding to level them. Abu Dawud said: Rudis is an island, in the sea.