Chapter 112

What to say near the deceased

Remembrance 1
WE RELATE FROM the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim from Umm Salamah Honorific symbol, who reported: “The Messenger of Allah Honorific symbol said: ‘If you are with a sick person or a person in the agony of death then speak [only] good, for the angels say Āmīn to what you say.’ When Abū Salamah Honorific symbol passed away I came to the Messenger of Allah Honorific symbol and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, Abū Salamah has passed away.’ He said: ‘Say: O Allah, forgive me and him, and give me good after him.’ I say that Allah gave me better than him: Muḥammad Honorific symbol.” [1].Such is the version in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim. At-Tirmidhī’s version has: “when you visit the sick or the dead. . .”, there being doubt [from the narrator]. The Sunan of Abū Dāwūd and others read “the dead” without ambiguity, unequivocally.
Arabic text from the source edition
Allāhumma-ghfir lī wa lah, wa a‘qibnī minhu ‘uqbā ḥasanah.
We relate in the Sunans of Abū Dāwūd and Ibn Mājah from Mu‘aqqal ibn Yasār al-Anṣārī Honorific symbol, who reported that the Messenger of Allah Honorific symbol said: “Recite Yā Sīn over your deceased.” [2].I say that the isnād is weak as there are two unknown transmitters in the isnād although Abū Dāwūd did not consider it weak.
We relate in Abū Dāwūd that Mukhālid reported that ash-Shābī said: “When the Anṣār came to see a deceased person they recited Sūrat al-Baqarah.” Mukhālid is a weak narrator.

References

[1] Muslim (919), at-Tirmidhī (977), Abū Dāwūd (3115).
[2] Abū Dāwūd (3121), Ibn Mājah (1448); it was considered weak by Ibn Ḥajar, ad-Dāraquṭnī and Ibn al-Qaṭṭān. Talkhīṣ al-ḥabīr (2/104).