When the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Medina, he asked about Bara bin Marur. They said, "He has passed away. He bequeathed a third of his estate to you, Messenger of Allah, and instructed that he be turned toward the qiblah when he was dying."The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "He has aligned with the natural disposition. I have returned his third to his children."Then he went and prayed over him, saying, "O Allah, forgive him, have mercy on him, and admit him into Your paradise, which You have already done."
أن النبي ﷺ حين قدم المدينة سأل عن البراء بن معرور، فقالوا: توفي، وأوصى بثلثه لك يا رسول الله، أوصى أن يوجه إلى القبلة لما احتضر، فقال رسول الله ﷺ: أصاب الفطرة، وقد رددت ثلثه على ولده ثم ذهب فصلى عليه فقال: اللهم اغفر له، وارحمه وأدخله جنتك وقد فعلت.
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Hakim narrated it (1/353), and Bayhaqi narrated it from him (3/384), via Naeem bin Hammad, who said, Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad Darawardi narrated to us, from Yahya bin Abdullah bin Abu Qatada, from his father, from Abu Qatada, who said, then he mentioned it.Hakim said, "This is a sahih hadith, for Bukhari relied on Naeem bin Hammad as evidence, and Muslim bin Hajjaj relied on Darawardi as evidence, yet neither of them included this hadith, and I do not know of any hadith about the dying person facing the qibla other than this one."In the copy of Mustadrak by Hakim and Sunan al-Kubra by Bayhaqi, it appears as "from Yahya bin Abdullah, from his father," without "from Abu Qatada" in either of them. However, Zaylai, in Nasb Raya (2/252), quoted from Hakim's route with the addition in the chain "from Abu Qatada." Likewise the Hafiz did the same in Talkhis, saying, "Hakim and Bayhaqi narrated it from Abu Qatada," and Nawawi in Majmu (5/116-117) said, "Hakim and Bayhaqi narrated it from the hadith of Abu Qatada," and the same is found in Khulasa (3268). This shows that an error occurred in the copy of Mustadrak, and consequently in Sunan Bayhaqi.Bayhaqi said, "Bara bin Marur was the first to face the qibla, both alive and dead."Yaqub bin Sufyan narrated in his Tarikh, via Ibn Shihab, from Abdul-Rahman bin Abdullah bin Kaab, who said, Kaab said, "Bara bin Marur was the first to face the Kaaba while alive, and when his death drew near, before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had turned to face it, news of that reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ , so he ordered him to face Bayt al-Maqdis, and he obeyed. But when he was dying, he ordered his family to turn him toward the Kaaba." Bara died a month before the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Madinah.