REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA— Why did the Prophet Muhammad forbid the burial of the dead at night? How to understand this prohibition?

This question was asked by a fiqh expert at Egypt's Al Azhar University, Dr Abu Yazid Salamah. Where it is forbidden to bury the dead at night is contained in the Shahih hadith narrated by Jabir radiyallahu anhu.

أَنَّ النَّبِىّ -صلى الله عليه وسلم- خَطَبَ يَوْمًا فَذَكَرَ رَجُلاً مِنْ أَصْحَابِهِ قُبِضَ فَكُفِّنَ فِى كَفَنٍ غَيْرِ طَائِلٍ وَقُبِرَ لَيْلاً فَزَجَرَ النَّبِىُّ -صلى الله عليه وسلم- أَنْ يُقْبَرَ الرَّجُلُ بِاللَّيْلِ حَتَّى يُصَلَّى عَلَيْهِ إِلاَّ أَنْ يُضْطَرَّ إِنْسَانٌ إِلَى ذَلِكَ

“One day the Prophet (pbuh) was speaking, and he alluded to one of his companions who had died, then he was wrapped in a cloth that did not cover his whole body, and was buried at night. Then the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) forbade burying a person at night, after he was disgraced, unless the public was forced to do so.” (narrated by Ahmad 14510, Muslim 2228 and others).

According to Abu Yazid Salamah, the prohibition in the hadith should be interpreted as the Prophet's disapproval of burying the body at night rather than as a prohibitive evidence at all.

He said that the reason why it was forbidden to bury the body at night in the hadith was because in the days of the Prophet Muhammad the lighting at night was minimal, and unlike in the present day where lighting can facilitate the care of the dead and illuminate those who come to pray the bodies and those who follow the burial process until the end.

In different redactions of hadith the Messenger of Allah is told about the bodies buried at night. This hadith is narrated by Imam Bukhari from Ibn Abbas:

أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم مر بقبر قد دفن ليلا فقال متى دفن هذا قالوا البارحة قال أفلا آذنتموني قالوا دفناه في ظلمة الليل فكرهنا أن نوقظك فقام فصففنا خلفه قال ابن عباس وأنا فيهم فصلى عليه

“The Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) passed through a grave of corpses that had been buried at night. He asked, “When was this body buried? They replied, 'Last night. The Messenger of Allah said, 'Why don't you tell me? They replied, 'We buried him in the middle of the night so we don't want to wake you up. Then the Prophet stood up and we marched behind him. Ibn Abbas said: 'I am among them. Then the Messenger of Allah prayed over the corpse.“