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The Prophet of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, would not allow the one afflicted to see their dead loved one, for fear that they might become disturbed and sad
An example of that is the incident with Safiyyah (the Prophet’s aunt) after her brother Hamzah (the Prophet’s paternal uncle) was killed.
`Urwah (a Companion) said: “My father, Az-Zubayr (a Companion) told me that on the day of Uhud, a woman appeared, and she was walking hastily, until she approached the Prophet of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. He disliked that she should see them and he, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: ‘The woman… the woman.’ Az-Zubayr said: ‘So I stared at her, noticing that it was my mother, Safiyyah, so I hurried over to her and reached her before she reached the dead bodies. She struck me in my chest – and she was a strong woman – and she said: ‘Go away from me!’ So I said: ‘The Messenger of Allah is determined to not allow you’ So she stopped and took out two garments that she had with her and said: ‘These are two garments that I brought for my brother Hamzah. I heard that he has been killed, so shroud him in these two garments.’
We went with the two garments in order to shroud Hamzah, and found besides him a man from the people of the Ansaar. Whatever was done to Hamzah was also done to him and we found it was falling short and we were too ashamed to shroud Hamzah in two garments, and not shroud the Ansaar man in anything.
So we said
‘We will use one garment for Hamzah and the other for the Ansaar man,’ so we measured them and found that one of the garments was longer than the other, so we shrouded each of them with the garment that was his size.”
Anas ibn Maalik said
“The Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, went to Hamzah on the day of Uhud, stood near him, seeing how he had been mutilated, and said: ‘Had it not been for the fact that Safiyyah would become sad, I would have left him in order for the beasts of prey and birds to eat, that way, he will be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection in their stomachs. Then he, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, called for a woolen cloak, and shrouded him in it. If his head was covered, his feet would become uncovered, and if his feet were covered, his head would become uncovered. So his head was veiled.”
