Wafatnya al-Najasyi (Raja Habasyah)

The Negus Ashama ibn Abjar — the Christian king of Abyssinia who had sheltered the first Muslim emigrants and refused to extradite them to the Quraysh — died in Rajab 9 AH. The news reached the Prophet ﷺ in Medina. He announced to the companions: 'Your brother has died' — calling him brother, placing him in the brotherhood of Islam — and led a funeral prayer for him: the salat al-gha'ib, the absent funeral prayer, four takbeerat, in rows, for a man buried on the other side of the African continent. This was the first recorded absent funeral prayer in Islamic history. The Negus's relationship to Islam had been documented in the seerah from the first emigration. When Jafar ibn Abi Talib spoke before his court and recited Surah Maryam, the Negus wept and drew a small line on the ground: 'The difference between what you have said about Jesus and what we believe is no greater than this.' He refused to hand over the Muslims, returned the Qurayshi delegation's gifts, and extended the Muslim emigrants full protection. When the Prophet ﷺ later sent letters to rulers inviting them to Islam, the Negus accepted Islam privately — the narrations indicate he acknowledged the Prophet's ﷺ message — though his public declaration was constrained by his political situation. The Prophet's ﷺ prayer over him is read by scholars as confirmation that the Negus died a Muslim. The salat al-gha'ib established a permanent institution in Islamic jurisprudence: the absent funeral prayer for Muslims who die without having had proper funeral rites performed over them. The Shafi'i and Hanbali schools permit it broadly; the Maliki and Hanafi schools have generally limited it. Every absent funeral prayer performed across the Muslim world since 9 AH traces its precedent to the Prophet's ﷺ prayer for the man who had given the Muslim community its first sanctuary in exile. The absent funeral prayer the Prophet ﷺ performed for the Negus established an institution that Muslims across every era have practiced when a member of their community dies far from home — every such prayer since 9 AH tracing its precedent to the Prophet's ﷺ prayer over the man who had given Islam its first sanctuary.