Question:

If in the funeral prayer there is one Imam and five Muqtadis, then in order to be worthy of the glad-tidings of forgiveness as mentioned in the Hadith, the three rows are lined up as such: two people standing in the first two rows and one person in the third row. In which  Hadith has there been a mention of such glad-tidings?

Answer:

Sayyiduna Ata ibn Abi Rabi  narrates, who was the student of the Mothers of the Believers Sayyida A’isha al- Siddiqa  and Sayyida Umm-Salama  and of Sayyiduna Abu Hurayra , Sayyiduna Abu Sa’id al-Khudri  and Sayyiduna Abd Allah ibn Abbas , as well as the great teacher of the Great Imam Abu Hanifa

The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) led a funeral prayer in which there were only seven people. The Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) organised the rows such that in the first stood three, in the second stood two and in the last row stood one person.’

Imam Abu Dawud and Imam al-Tirmidhi narrate: ‘Anyone in whose funeral prayer there were three rows [of people who performed his funeral prayer] shall be forgiven.’

And Allah ﷻ knows the best

Imam Ahmad Rida Khan رحمة الله تعالى عليه

Translation by Dr Musharraf Hussain Al-Azhari Translator of Majestic Quran, www.majesticquran.co.uk