can he look at her face; this is wrong. The only thing that he is not allowed to do is to give Ghusl to her body and to touch her body without anything in between (his hand and her body).’

(Baĥār-e-Sharī’at, vol. 1, pp. 812)

Question: A wife can give Ghusl to her deceased husband but not vice versa. What is the wisdom behind it?

Answer: As soon as a wife dies, the Nikah of the husband gets immediately terminated whereas the Nikah of the woman exists in some cases until her ‘Iddat period finishes. My master A’lā Ḥaḍrat رَحْمَةُ اللهِ تَعَالٰی عَلَيْه says: A husband can look at his wife after her death but he cannot touch her body because the Nikah terminates when she dies. As far as the wife is concerned, she can touch her deceased husband’s body and can give Ghusl to him provided she was not previously given the Bāin divorce (i.e. a kind of divorce in which the couple must conduct a new Nikah in order to get reunited and mere Rujū’ is not sufficient). This is because the Nikah of a woman exists for her due to the ‘Iddat. (Fatāwā Razawiyyaĥ, vol. 22, pp. 234)

O Lord of Mustafa عَزَّوَجَلَّ for the sake of the mothers of the believers and Sayyidatunā Fāṭimaĥ رَضِیَ الـلّٰـهُ تَعَالٰی عَـنْهُنَّ! Bestow the veil of modesty upon all our Islamic sisters and make them observe veil properly with a Madanī Burqa’. Forgive me and the entire Ummaĥ.

اٰمِيۡن بِجَاهِ النَّبِيِّ الۡاَمِيۡن صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيۡهِ وَاٰلِه وَسَلَّم

­­­

Muhammad Ilyas Attar Qadiri

1 Rajab-ul-Murajjab, 1430 AH (June 24, 2009)