Chapter on Guiding the Dying, Positioning Them at Death, Procedures for Their Final Moments, Washing Them, and Placing Them in Shrouds

The Shaykh (Al-Mufid), may Allah سبحانه وتعالى support him, narrated to me from Abu al-Qasim Ja‘far ibn Muhammad, from Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub, from ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim, from his father, from Ibn Abi ‘Umayr, from Abu Ayyub al-Khazzaz, from ‘Uthman al-Nawwa’: He said: I said to Abu ‘Abdullah عليه السلام, "I wash the deceased." Imam عليه السلام asked: "Do you do it properly?" I said: "I wash them." Imam عليه السلام said: "When you wash, be gentle with the deceased. Do not press him, and do not apply camphor to his ears. And when you wrap his head with a turban (Imamah), do not tie it like the turban of the Bedouins." I said: "How should I do it?" Imam عليه السلام said: "Take the turban from its middle, spread it over his head, then fold it behind him, and place its two ends on his chest."