All perfect praise be to Allah. Blessings and peace be upon Prophet Mohammad.
It is permissible for a husband to look at the corpse of his deceased wife, wash her, enshroud her, and he is the most suitable person to place her in her grave. Aisha` {May Allah be pleased with her} reported: “ The Prophet (PBUH) returned one day from a funeral in Al-Baqie`, and I was having a bad headache, and experiencing pain, so he said to me, what if you had died before me, and I washed, enshrouded and prayed the funeral prayer on you ? ” { Ahmad. This Hadith is graded as good}.
Al-Imam An-Nawawi stated in his book { Al-Majmou`}: “ We, The Shafites, have a consensus amongst ourselves that it is permissible for a husband to wash the corpse of his deceased wife.”
The most suitable person to place a deceased woman in her grave is her husband, then her Mahrams { Non-Marriageable relatives}, if there isn`t, then a Non-Mahram { Marriageable} man.
Al-Khatib Ashirbini stated in his book {Moghni Al-Mohtajj}: “ The corpse of a deceased is to be placed in the grave by men, if they were available, even if it was a woman`s…unless she was married, then her husband is the most suitable person to do so, even though he has no right to offer funeral prayer on her because he is permitted to see her private parts. After him comes the closest of her Mahrams as regards placing her in the grave.
