English Translation

Ali ibn Asim narrated to us: al-Hajari informed us, who said: I went out in the funeral procession of the daughter of Abd Allah ibn Abi Awfa, while he was on a black mule of his. The women began saying to his guide, "Bring him forward, ahead of the bier." So he did. I heard him say to his guide, "Where is the bier?" He said, "Behind you." He did that once or twice, then he said, "Did I not forbid you to bring me ahead of the bier?" Then he heard a woman wailing loudly — and he said once, "lamenting in verse" — and he said, "Stop! Did I not forbid you this? Indeed the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, used to forbid elegiac lamentation, so that each of you may pour out as much of her weeping as she wishes." When the bier was set down, he came forward and pronounced four takbirs over it, then stood for a short while. Some of the people began to glorify Allah (to alert him), so he turned around and said, "Did you think I was going to say a fifth takbir?" They said, "Yes." He said, "The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, when he said the fourth takbir, would stand a short while." When the bier was set down, he sat, and we sat with him, and he was asked about the meat of domestic donkeys. He said, "On the day of Khaybar, domestic donkeys came upon us from outside the village, and the people fell upon them and slaughtered them, and the pots were boiling with some of them, when the herald of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, called out, ‘Pour them out!’ So we poured them out." And I saw upon Abd Allah ibn Abi Awfa a green silk mantle.