Narrated Ibn Abu Mulaika said that when ‘Abd ar-Rahman b. Abu Bakr died in al-Hubshi, the name of a palce, he was conveyed to Mecca and buried there. When ‘A’isha arrived she went to the grave of ‘Abd ar. Rahman b. Abu Bakr and said:
We were like the companions of Jadhima (Jadhima was a legendary pre-Islamic king with his centre in al-Anbar. He had two boon- companions, 'Aqil and Malik, who are said to have been together for forty years. The verses are from a lament by Mutammim b. Nuwaira al-Yarbu'i over his brother Malik) for a long time, so that people said the two will never be separated.
But when we separated it seemed, in spite of long association, as if Malik and I had not spent a single night together.
She then said, “I swear by God that if I had been present with you, you would have been buried nowhere but where you died, and if I had been with you I would not have visited you.”
‘Abdallah b. ‘Umar said he heard the Prophet say, “When one of you dies do not keep him long, but take him quickly to his grave, and have the opening verses of sura al-Baqara recited at his head and the concluding verses of the same sura at his feet.”
Baihaqi transmitted it in Shu'ab al-iman, saying the correct view is that it does not go farther back than him.
