Washing of the body

The body should be bathed in the following manner:Fresh or lukewarm water should be used to wash the body three times. The practice of the Holy Prophet (saw), was to put some leaves of a Beri tree in the water for washing the dead body. First of all, those limbs, which are washed during normal Wudhu (Ablutions), should be washed though it is not required to pour water in the mouth or nostrils to clean them or to wash the feet. Next the body should be washed, first the right side and then the left. Private parts of the body should remain covered by a cloth. Men alone can bathe male persons and women alone can bathe female persons. The body should then be wrapped in a shroud, which normally is made of an inexpensive white cloth.

The shroud for men consists of three pieces of cloth; a top sheet to cover the top part of the body, a bottom sheet to cover the lower part, and a large sheet to cover the whole body from head to feet.

For a female, however, two additional pieces of cloth are used, one for her chest, and the other for her head. Islam instructs that one should arrange the burial with utmost simplicity.

A martyr does not need either bathing or the shroud to wrap his body. He may be buried in the clothes he was wearing at the time of death.