It says...

It says: ولا تُصلِّ على أحد منهم مات أبداً ولا تقم على قبره إنهم كفروا بالله ورسوله وماتوا وهُم فاسقون. “And never offer prayer for anyone of them who dies and do not stand by his grave, surely they disbelieve in Allah and His Apostle and they shall die in transgression. (Tauba 19:84)” In this verse, for destroying the character of the hypocrites and rebuking the members of this group, the God commands the Holy Prophet (s): Not to perform salat over the dead body of anyone of them.

Not to stand over their graves; and this reality is presented with the sentence; ولا تقُم على قبره When the Holy Qur’an commands that one should avoid these two actions with regards to the hypocrites it means that for others who are not hypocrites these actions are good and worthy to be performed. Now let us see what ولا تقم على قبره means?

Does it refer only to the standing at the time of burial which in the case of hypocrites is not permissible and in the case of the believers good and necessary? Or it also refers to standing at the time of burial and at other instances?

Some of the commentators think that the verse refers to the matter of standing at the time of burial but some others like al-Baydawi see the verse from a far angle and interpret it as such: ولا تقُم على قبره للدفن أو لزيارة “Don’t stand on grave for burial or pilgrimage.” [^2] Paying attention to the contents of verse will show that it is having a wider meaning i.e. it concerns standing at the time of burial as well as stopping after the burial.

This is because two sentences form the gist of the subject matter of this verse and these two sentences comprises of: لا تُصلِّ على أحدٍ منهم مات أبداً “And never offer prayer for anyone of them who dies…… (Tauba 19:84)” The word of احد which has been placed in the course of prohibition is good for all individuals.

The word of ابدا is good for all times and the meaning of the sentence will be as such: “Do not perform salat for any one of the hypocrites at any time.” By paying attention to these two words we can easily understand that the meaning of this particular sentence is not referring to recitation of salat over the dead body because reciting salat over the dead body takes place only once and that is before the burial and it cannot be repeated.

If it specifically meant recitation of salat over the dead, then it was needless to bring the word ابدا .