5-Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle - Hakikat Kitabevi

wrote about Majalla and explained fourteen other Ottoman laws
article by article in his book Juzdân-i Kavânin-i Osmâniyye
(Pamphlet of Ottoman laws) printed in 1312 [1894 A.D.] in
Istanbul.
24 – SECOND VOLUME, 16th LETTER
This letter, written to Badi’uddîn Sahâranpûrî, informs
us about life in the grave and about the thawâb of plague.
Hamd be to Allâhu ta’âlâ. Salâm be to the good people He
has chosen. Your valuable letter has reached us. You write that
in your part of the country two horrific series of events have
commenced, and that one of them is the tâ’ûn [plague] and the
other is the qaht [food famine]. May Allâhu ta’âlâ protect us and
you against calamities. May He bless us all with good health!
“This great catastrophe notwithstanding, we are still praying
day and night and waiting upon the will of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Our
hearts are with Him momentarily,” you write. Upon reading this,
we paid our hamd and gratitude to Allâhu ta’âlâ. At such times
as this, recite the four Quls very often! [That is, say the sûras
beginning as “Qul yâ ayyuhal kâfirûn...,” “Qul huwallâhu...” and
“Qul a’ûdhu...” This will protect you against the harms of genies
and human beings!]
The sunna prescribes that a man’s shroud must consist of
three parts. It is bid’a to wrap a turban. A piece of paper called
Ahdnâma, [on which the answers to be given to the
interrogating angels and the prayers such as istighfâr are
written], must not be put in the grave. Otherwise it will cause the
blessed letters and names to be smeared with the foul
emissions from the corpse; and it has not been commanded by
any [of the four] basic proofs [of the Sharî’a]. The savants of
Mâwarâ-un nahr [Transoxiana, the cities between the rivers Syr
Darya (Jaxartes) and Amu Darya (Oxus) near the Aral Sea]
never did so. It is good to put a savant’s shirt on the deceased
instead of a qamîs. Martyrs’ shrouds are their clothes. [Those
martyrs who die of a wound by a gun are not washed or
shrouded. Those who die in combat without being wounded or
who die of an epidemic disease or in a catastrophe still get the
thawâb of martyrs, but they are washed and shrouded]. Abû
Bakr-i Siddîq (radiyallâhu ’anh) enjoined in his last will, “Shroud
me with these two pieces of clothes of mine!”
Because life in the grave is like worldly life in one respect,
- 267 -