Who is more deserving of leading the funeral prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: Regarding the imam in the funeral prayer, does the deceased’s relative lead the people, or the imam of the mosque?
Answer:
The one most deserving to pray over him is, without doubt, his male agnatic relatives, unless he left a will specifying that a certain person should pray over him; in that case, that person prays over him, even if he is not a relative. The one most deserving to pray over him is his closest relative, then the next closest, and so on, followed by the deceased’s executor. Or, the executor is the first, and then his relatives after the executor, the closest first, then the next closest. This applies when the one praying is not the imam of the mosque where the prayer is held. However, if the prayer is held in the mosque, the imam prays over him, and no one takes precedence over the imam of the mosque.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: Regarding the imam in the funeral prayer, does the deceased’s relative lead the people, or the imam of the mosque?
Answer:
The one most deserving to pray over him is, without doubt, his male agnatic relatives, unless he left a will specifying that a certain person should pray over him; in that case, that person prays over him, even if he is not a relative. The one most deserving to pray over him is his closest relative, then the next closest, and so on, followed by the deceased’s executor. Or, the executor is the first, and then his relatives after the executor, the closest first, then the next closest. This applies when the one praying is not the imam of the mosque where the prayer is held. However, if the prayer is held in the mosque, the imam prays over him, and no one takes precedence over the imam of the mosque.
Source
المنتقى من أخبار سيد المرسلين 29-01-1436هـ — alfawzan.live (44:12)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.