Death (mawt) and its legal effects on the dead person's rights and obligations

Death in the lexicon is the opposite of life; in law it is the departure of the soul from the body. The jurists tie its rulings to its visible signs. ^{1 2}

Death is real, when the soul leaves the body; legal, when a judge declares a person dead, as an apostate who joins the enemy; or presumed, as a missing person after the age of the long-lived. ^{1 3}

The majority of the People of the Sunna hold that souls survive death, in bliss or in punishment, and that the intermediate life is the barrier between this world and the next. They differ on whether the questioning in the grave falls on the soul, on the body or on both, and on where souls rest. ^{2 4 5 6 7}

All agree that prayer for the dead benefits them. Jurists differ on whether the reward of other acts given to the dead, such as pilgrimage, alms, fasting, prayer and recitation, reaches them. Greeting the dead in graves is recommended. ^{8 4}

Debts owed to the dead pass to the heirs. The Hanafis exempt maintenance of a wife and of kin in some cases; most jurists hold that a deferred debt keeps its term, while some Hanbalis make it due at death. Blood money and compensation for injuries are property that enters the estate. Rights of use and the pledge pass to the heirs. ^{7 9 10 11 12 13}

Rights tied to the person, such as custody, guardianship, the right to return to a wife after zihar, and the wife's right to separation after ila', fall away at death and do not pass. ¹⁴

Options (of session, acceptance, designation, deceit, payment), pre-emption, the right of the owner to approve an unauthorised sale, use of property under lease or loan, and the right of prior claim on land all differ in whether they pass to the heirs, according to which side prevails. ^{14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26}

A gift is void by the donor's death before delivery according to the Hanafis and Malikis; the Shafi'is and some Hanbalis let the heir decide whether to take delivery. The right of the donor to revoke does not pass to his heirs by the majority. ^{27 28 29}

Alms due are not voided by death, according to the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, and must be paid from the estate; the Hanafis hold them void unless bequeathed, and the Malikis distinguish the current year from earlier years. Expiation and redemption are paid from the third if bequeathed or acknowledged. A wife's maintenance debt passes as a debt. ^{29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36}

A vow or a due pilgrimage may be performed by another for the dead according to the Shafi'is and Hanbalis, while the Hanafis and Malikis say the duty falls away unless bequeathed. Prayer is not performed by proxy. Fasting may be made up by the heir, or feeding the poor is owed, according to different views. ^{37 38 39 40}

Sale, salam, lease, irrigation partnership, sharecropping, assignment, pledge, surety, gift, loan, agency, partnership, profit-sharing, reward for a task, vows and promises each follow different rules when a party dies. Agency ends by the death of the principal, and a loan ends by the death of the lender, the majority say; the lease is not void by death of the lessor. ^{41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62}

The Sheikh says that seeing the dead reminds one of one's own end, that whoever carries a bier knows he will be carried, and that people at death do not wish for life (his view, needs_source). ^{63 64} He says people are busy in life and wake only at death, and that regret does not help after punishment (his view). ⁶⁵ He says that removing shoes at a grave is a social custom and not a religious one (his view, needs_source). ⁶⁶ He gives the image of two bricks, a mud brick that dissolves in water and a fired brick that hardens, likening the second to one who endured trials and was tempered (his view). ^{67 68}

The Sheikh recalls the received guidance on plague: people should not enter a land where it has struck, and those already in it should not leave (needs_source) ⁶⁹. He says wrongdoers are of two kinds, and mentions that one kind is the person who feels regret for his fault ⁶⁹.

The Sheikh says every human being has two ends, one of which is the end at which human will stops, the will that acts and refrains, goes and comes ⁷⁰. He holds that this will ends when the angel of death takes the soul, and that remembering this shakes the heart ⁷⁰.

The Sheikh gives the example of a patient who enters the operating theatre and is anaesthetised until he forgets his own name, then wakes up and asks in fright what it was he saw; he takes the human being to be likewise unprepared for what he will see ⁷¹. He reports that Ali told his son al-Hasan to come to know death well, so that it would not take him by surprise when it came (needs_source) ⁷².

The Sheikh says the punishment is near because death may come at any moment, and holds that if every person, believer or not, were asked when he will die, he would have no answer An-Naba 40 ⁷³. He says everyone hopes not to die today because he is afraid, and that the believer fears a bad ending, his shortcomings, and what he owes to the Creator and to creatures ⁷³. He notes that death lies between one moment and the next, and that every day people hear of the death of some person An-Naba 40 ⁷⁴. He asks why the hands are singled out for mention on that day, and not the eyes, the ears or the feet ⁷⁴.

The Sheikh relates that a man with seven righteous sons lay dying with them around him, and said he was relying not on them but on the Generous One and on His mercy when asking forgiveness (needs_source) ⁷⁶. He says a cup of water may be worth the whole kingdom (needs_source) ⁷⁵. He states that Rothschild lent the British government money in order to obtain the Balfour promise, and that he once went into his private vault and the door was shut on him (needs_source) ⁷⁵. He then mentions Onassis, saying his yacht opened by voiceprint and that he had a son and a daughter (needs_source) ⁷⁷.

The Sheikh says the highest provision is God's good pleasure, and holds that a person's dutifulness to his parents is among the means to that pleasure ⁷⁸. He states that the angel of death has registers in which people's lifespans are written, and that he descends at the time God commands him (needs_source) ⁷⁸. He relates that God tells the angel of death, about a man he is about to take, not to do so because the man was dutiful to his parents, and that God had granted him an added measure of pleasure (needs_source) ⁷⁹. He says Surat an-Nazi'at is heavy, that entering this part of the Qur'an is entering fear, because it is entering a world in which nothing is familiar, and that a person finds the harvest of what he planted ⁸⁰.

The sheikh says death is not caused by sickness or age: people of sound health die without cause, sick people live long, and a person dies when his term comes ⁸¹. He criticises the idea that illness or old age brings the angel of death closer, and that health or youth keeps him away, calling this a mistaken belief ⁸². He says sickness does not bring death, and that the afflicted should rejoice in God's favour and know that God loves them ⁸³. Answering a caller from Syria who fears death, he says fear that motivates good deeds is good, fear that causes laziness is not, and urges optimism ⁸⁴.

He narrates that the angel of death comes at the appointed time, and that not a dirham of one's provision or a moment of one's life is lost; he says people misjudge provision as money (needs_source: the narration is not sourced in the recording) ⁸⁵. He says the soul desires revenge, transgression and the taking of rights; the eighth demand is that the angel of death take the soul, which people fear whatever their state ⁸⁶. He cites a verse on the moment the soul reaches its end, and says angels of mercy or of punishment come, without naming the sura ⁸⁷.

He says the dead person's goods stay behind, his family accompanies him to the grave, and only his deeds go into the grave with him ⁸⁸. He says the shroud is the only worldly thing a person takes with him, and that he enters the grave poor and naked as he came out ⁸⁹. He says death ends the opportunity to act: after it there is only Paradise or the Fire, so time must be used now ⁹⁰.

He cites a verse on the creation of man from dust and his return to it, and describes throwing dust on the grave at three points ⁹¹. He criticises people who talk about market prices while standing at a grave, and asks whether anyone has prepared for that day ⁹².

He tells a hadith about a handsome, fragrant figure that comes to the grave of a righteous person to keep him company until the Hour, and gives the counterpart in which an ugly figure comes to keep an evil person company (needs_source: the hadiths are not named in the recording) ⁹³⁹⁴. In one narration he gives, the grave of a believer is widened and his seat in Paradise is shown to him, while the grave of one who did not believe is narrowed (needs_source: the narration is not sourced in the recording) ⁹⁵.

He urges hastening the burial of the dead, and says that this is recommended ⁹⁶. He tells that two gravediggers in Medina, one digging a niche and the other a shaft, both made istikhara; the one who came first was chosen, and the Prophet ﷺ was placed in the niche (needs_source: the narration is not sourced in the recording) ⁹⁷. He describes the traveller who asked a guide to the city and was led to a graveyard, where everyone had come to the city and none had come back ⁹⁸.

He tells of a child who died after an illness, whom his mother covered; at dawn she told Jabir about a trust that neighbours had returned with a claim, and Jabir accepted it as God's trust (needs_source: the story is not sourced, and part of it is unclear in the recording) ⁹⁹. He tells that after Jabir ibn Abdullah (may God be pleased with him)'s son died, his wife dealt with the matter of the trust returned to its owners, and he praises her patience and her handling of the matter, rather than letting grief spread (needs_source: the event is not sourced in the recording) ¹⁰⁰. He tells that Jabir's wife hid her son's death from her husband until the morning, when the husband found the boy had rested (needs_source: the event is not sourced in the recording) ¹⁰¹.

He cites a hadith in which the Prophet taught Umm Salama a supplication after the death of Abu Salama, and she was given a better husband, the Prophet himself (needs_source: the hadith is not named in the recording) ¹⁰².

The speaker says the grave is a box of deeds, and criticises those who give false witness, swear false oaths and wrong others ¹⁰³.