The Prayer of the One in I'tikaf for the Funeral and Attending Funerals

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. In the statement of 'Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) regarding the one in i'tikaf that he does not attend a funeral: if a man is in the mosque in i'tikaf and a funeral prayer is performed, is it permissible for him to pray with them?

Answer:
Yes. The meaning is not that he does not pray for the funeral if it is present; rather, it means he does not go out with it to the graveyard, nor does he go to the mosques to follow the funerals while he is in i'tikaf, as some of the young men do, flying from mosque to mosque when a funeral prayer is performed. If you pray for a funeral in one mosque in a day, that is sufficient, my brother.
If you pray for a funeral seeking reward, that is sufficient. Do not go following the mosques where they pray before the imam arrives, praying for the funeral before the imam comes, and then going to another mosque, thereby encroaching on the imam's right. No one else should pray for the funeral, nor should anyone else pray the obligatory prayer in his mosque, as it is the place of his authority. But may Allah reform these people; they have not understood the religion. They have zeal for good, but they lack jurisprudence, and this is the affliction of ignorance.