…concerning the old, black woman that used to clean the masjid and whom the Companions buried at night without telling him, “Why did you not inform me? For verily my Salaat upon them is a mercy…” and he went to her grave and prayed over her.

specifically, i have a series of questions :)
does the hadith suggest in any way that she had not been prayed over by the sahabah, radi Allaho anhum?

assuming the sahabah had rushed to properly prepare her, pray over her, and bury her, wouldn’t that be their normal sunnah?

when considering the position against the ruling that janazah-absent-the-body is generally permissible, is this hadith offered (by you or anyone else) as a proof because the Prophet sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam went to the graveyard to pray for her?

does his — sull Allaho alayhi wa sallam — doing so imply that at that time it was permissible (beyond making dua to Allah for the deceased, preferably while facing the qiblah so as to protect oneself from sin) to pray at or near graves (as in a graveyard)?

if so, and assuming that was abrogated later, wouldn’t that make the hadith (almost) ineffective as a proof — because at one time a person could do as he did, and then after that the option disappeared?

if not, then his prayer was other than salat-ul-janazah, right? the sunnah is to make dua for the deceased while he is being buried, and especially when the angels are questioning him. would not all of this also make the hadith ineffective as a proof?

Although in those days while I was with this group, I never made takfeer of Shaikh Ibn Baaz but must admit however that I did used to hold some feelings of animosity towards the Shaikh and warn others from reading his books, may Allah forgive me.

Allhamdulillah one of the things that eventually led me to leave this takfeeri group was the whole issue of the takfeer made by this so called ‘scholar’ on Shaikh Ibn Baaz. Whenever he was asked as to who were the real ulamah, he would always respond with the names of Salmaan al-Oadah and Safar al-Hawali. Then one day while I was reading through Salmaan al-Oadahs website (IslamToday), I happened to come across a transcript of a discussion between Salmaan al-Oadah and a certain individual who had written in to Salmaan al-Oadah and was criticising Shaikh Ibn Baaz, even making takfeer of him. To my shock, Salmaan al-Oadah replied back to this individual asking him to cease saying such an evil thing and to go listen to his lecture titled ‘The Virtues Of Shaikh bin Baaz.’ The individual replied saying something along the lines of, “but shaikh he was the one who signed the fatwa to have you imprisoned.” Salmaan al-Oadah replied by cautioning the individual and said that in his heart he has nothing but love for Shaikh Ibn Baaz and that he was a like a father for him.

This really shocked me. On one hand this takfeeri scholar was making takfeer of Shaikh Ibn Baaz left, right and center, and on the other hand Salmaan al-Oadah who this takfeeri scholar would refer to as one of the real scholars of the ummah today, had nothing but love and praise for Shaikh Ibn Baaz. This started me questioning other things this takfeeri ‘shaikh’ was coming out with. Then one day I stumbled upon a statement signed by the Commanders of the Mujahideen in Chechnya asking Muslim to make dua for them in the approaching month of Ramadan. In the last paragraph of this statement, the Commanders praised Shaikh Ibn Baaz by making dua for the Shaikhs grave to be filled with light, mentioning that Shaikh Ibn Baaz always showed support towards the Mujahideen in Chechnya and whenever he heard of their plight, the Shaikh would make qunoot dua for them.

This further shocked me, as this takfeeri shaikh used to always mention how Shaikh Ibn Baaz hated the mujahideen and anyone who made jihad. Soon after, all praise be to Allah, I left this takfeeri group. I then happened to one day come across a brief biography online of Shaikh Ibn Baaz written by one of the Shaikhs students, Salih al-Munajjad. It can easily be found on the web. Whilst reading through the biography of the Shaikh, my heart began to fill up with more and more love for the Shaikh and eventually tears began to flow down my face and I started to cry. I felt so ashamed of holding bad feelings in my heart towards the Shaikh. I printed off as many copies as I could of the biography and distributed it to the brothers in my local community.

Allhamdulillah I was fortunate that one night in my dream I had the pleasure of meeting Shaikh Ibn Baaz. I was sat in haram in Makkah reading from the mushaf, Shaikh Ibn Baaz walked past me and came and sat down in front of me leaning against one of the pillars of the sacred Masjid and started talking to me. The amazing thing was that in the dream the Shaikh wasn’t blind and could see. I woke up feeling a real joy in my heart. Without a doubt, Shaikh Ibn Baaz was one of the biggest scholars in our lifetime and his passing away was a sign that knowledge is being taken away.

May Allah grant Shaikh Ibn Baaz a lofty place in jannah and shower him with His mercy on the Day of Judgment.

“Verily, the death of Sh. Ibn Baaz is something that causes the hearts to melt, and the eyes to cry, and the souls to despair… but to Allah we belong, and to Him we will return. We pray that Allah blesses us with more scholars, and helps us all to increase in knowledge. Ameen”

SubhaanAllah, how true this is and may Allah ta’ala put in his place another who may propagate the da’wah as he did. Aameen.

SubhanAllah. May Allah give him Jannat-ul-Firdous, ameen.