The Fiqh of travelling from the Flight Home to the Enduring Home (21)

Chapter on: [Things that should be done with the deceased after his death]

- Question 5/24: It is a Sunnah to close the eyes of the dead after his soul leaves then reciting the relevant invocation.

When a person dies, his eyes follows his soul to see its place.. It is a Sunnah to close his eyes so that they do not remain open and distort his shape thereafter.

The proof to this from the Sunnah is the Hadith of Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with her) who said: “The Messenger of Allah ((peace be upon him)) came to Abu Salamah (as he died). His eyes were fixedly open. He closed them, and then said: When the soul is taken away, the sight follows it. Some of the people of his family wept and wailed. So, he said: Do not supplicate for yourselves anything but good, for angels say: "Amen" to what you say. He then said: O Allah, forgive Abu Salamah, raise his degree among those who are rightly guided, grant him a successor in his descendants who remain. Forgive us and him, O Lord of the Universe, and make his grave spacious, and grant him light in it.”[1] What is taken from this Hadith is that it is Sunnah to make this invocation after closing the eyes, following the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) who said: O Allah, forgive so and so (the name of the deceased is mentioned) and then the remaining supplication comes.