5-Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle - Hakikat Kitabevi

sake of Allah and free of charge. The thawâb which is to be
given for doing something fard is given to people who do these
services, and it is far greater than the thawâb for any other good
or philanthropic activity. If no one performs this service, all
people who have heard about it but have not come to serve will
be sinners. Anyone who doesn’t accept these services as a
duty and underestimates their value, loses his belief and
becomes a murtad.] It is permissible for a child also to wash a
corpse. A disbeliever’s corpse is not washed. It is wrapped in a
piece of cloth and buried.
When there are no women, a man cannot wash the corpse
of a woman. But, after the corpse is covered from head to foot,
a relative of hers or, if she has no relatives, someone else
wraps a piece of cloth around his hand, puts his hand under the
cover, and makes tayammum on the corpse. For, a dead
person’s awrat part is the same as a living person’s. Those
parts of the body that are forbidden for others to look at are also
forbidden for them to touch. A better way would be to teach a
child and have it wash the corpse.
The bench for washing the corpse must be as high as (an
average person’s) navel and must be sloping a little. The water
must not be very hot and must be salty. Cool and salty water
retards rotting. Even if the corpse is a child’s, it is first given an
ablution. But, instead of putting water into its mouth and nose,
they are cleaned with a piece of cloth. If water escapes into its
mouth it will expedite the rotting process. First its face is
washed. Then its arms are washed, its ears and the back of its
neck are given masah, and its feet are washed. Its head and
beard are washed with marsh-mallow or soap and with water
which is boiled with cedar leaves or soapwort and then cooled
or mixed with a whitish, aromatic substance called camphor or,
if these are unavailable, only with pure water. Then it is turned
and made to lie on its left and water is poured on its right hand
side. The water must be made to reach even those parts
touching the washing bench. Then it is made to lie on its right
and water is poured on its left from head to foot. Then it is made
to sit up and the abdomen is slightly pressed down. Anything
coming out is washed away. [That is, it is removed by pouring
water.] Then it is made to lie on its left and its right hand side is
washed again, [that is, water is poured from head to foot]. Thus,
as prescribed by the sunna, it will have been washed three
- 190 -