Wikipedia's first sentence called it “kind of funeral prayer performed upon a dead muslim if he or she dies in a place where there are no muslims to”. Today it says “funeral rite performed for a deceased muslim if their body is inaccessible or unavailable”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2015
Arabic text An absentee funeral prayer in Islam , known as ( Salat Algayb ), is a kind of funeral prayer performed upon a dead Muslim if he or she dies in a place where there are no Muslims to pray for the dead.1 By contrast, if someone dies and a funeral prayer is said on his or her behalf, no other prayer is necessary. The Hadith , or traditions of Muhammad , approve of offering funeral prayers for an absent person . Abu Hurayrah reports: "The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) informed his companions about the death of Negus (Najashi), the king of Abyssinia , the day that he died.2 And then the Prophet led them to the prayer ground where he lined them up and offered funeral prayer for him with four Takbirs". The time for offering a funeral prayer for an absent person should be within one month after his death. This rule is deduced from the Mursal Hadith stating that Muhammad performed a funeral prayer on the grave of a woman one month after her death, as Sayeed Ibn al-Musayyab reports: "Saad Bin Ubadh's mother died while the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was absent. "Ruling on offering the funeral prayer in absentia - islamqa.info" . islamqa.info .3 [Reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim]
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 640730396.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Islamic prayer Absentee funeral prayer in Islam , known as Salat al-Gha'ib ( ), is a kind of funeral prayer performed upon a dead Muslim if they die in a place where there are no Muslims to pray for the dead. By contrast, if someone dies and a funeral prayer is said on his or her behalf, no other prayer is necessary. The Hadith , or traditions of Muhammad , approve of offering funeral prayers for an absent person . Abu Hurayrah reports: "The Prophet informed his companions about the death of Negus (Najashi), the king of Abyssinia , the day that he died. And then the Prophet led them to the prayer ground where he lined them up and offered funeral prayer for him with four Takbirs". The time for offering a funeral prayer for an absent person should be within one month after his death. This rule is deduced from the Mursal Hadith stating that Muhammad performed a funeral prayer on the grave of a woman one month after her death, as Sayeed Ibn al-Musayyab reports: "Saad Bin Ubadh's mother died while the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was absent. "Ruling on offering the funeral prayer in absentia - islamqa.info" . islamqa.info . [Reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim]
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 947854675.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Islamic prayer Absentee funeral prayer in Islam , known as Salat al-Gha'ib ( ), is a kind of funeral prayer performed upon a dead Muslim if they die in a place where there are no Muslims to pray for the dead. By contrast, if someone dies and a funeral prayer is said on his or her behalf, no other prayer is necessary. The Hadith , or traditions of Muhammad , approve of offering funeral prayers for an absent person . Abu Hurayrah reports: "The Prophet informed his companions about the death of Negus (Najashi), the king of Abyssinia , the day that he died. And then the Prophet led them to the prayer ground where he lined them up and offered funeral prayer for him with four Takbirs". The time for offering a funeral prayer for an absent person should be within one month after his death. This rule is deduced from the Mursal Hadith stating that Muhammad performed a funeral prayer on the grave of a woman one month after her death, as Sayeed Ibn al-Musayyab reports: "Saad Bin Ubadh's mother died while the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was absent. [Reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim]
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1167590610.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Islamic prayer Absentee funeral prayer in Islam , known as Salat al-Gha'ib ( Arabic : صلاة الغائب ), is a kind of funeral prayer performed upon a dead Muslim if they die in a place where there are no Muslims to pray for the dead. By contrast, if someone dies and a funeral prayer is said on his or her behalf, no other prayer is necessary. The Hadith , or traditions of Muhammad , approve of offering funeral prayers for an absent person . Abu Hurayrah reports: "The Prophet informed his companions about the death of Negus (Najashi), the king of Abyssinia , the day that he died. And then the Prophet led them to the prayer ground where he lined them up and offered funeral prayer for him with four Takbirs". The time for offering a funeral prayer for an absent person should be within one month after his death. This rule is deduced from the Mursal Hadith stating that Muhammad performed a funeral prayer on the grave of a woman one month after her death, as Sayeed Ibn al-Musayyab reports: "Saad Bin Ubadh's mother died while the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was absent. [Reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim]
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1254414510. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “kind of funeral prayer performed upon a dead muslim if he or she dies in a place where there are no muslims to”. Today it says “funeral rite performed for a deceased muslim if their body is inaccessible or unavailable”. Read the current article and compare.
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
kind of funeral prayer performed upon a dead muslim if he or she dies in a place where there are no muslims to
Now
funeral rite performed for a deceased muslim if their body is inaccessible or unavailable
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
