It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade plastering graves, writing on them, building over them and sitting on them. These chains are sahih (authentic), but (in practice) they are not acted upon, for the graves of the Imams of the Muslims from the East to the West have writing on them, and this is a practice that the later generations (khalaf) took from the earlier ones (salaf).

Al-Sunabihi narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "My Ummah - or this Ummah - will remain firmly established upon its religion as long as it does not leave funerals to their families alone (that is, the whole community and society continue to take part in them)." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain provided that this al-Sunabihi is "Abdullah"; but if he is Abd al-Rahman bin Usaylah al-Sunabihi, then there is disagreement about his having heard from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); and the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.