The Ruling on Following the Funeral Prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Abu Ali says: Honorable Shaykh, I make every effort to pray over the dead, and I go to distant mosques for the sake of praying over them. However, I may miss the 'Asr prayer, and I may also miss the takbirat. What is the ruling on this?
Answer:
The ruling is that you should not strain yourself to do such a thing. If it is easy for you to pray over the funeral, accompany it, and follow it, that is better. If it involves strain, hardship, and distance, and you also mentioned that you miss the obligatory prayer. Yes.
This is not permissible, my brother. You would be pursuing a voluntary prayer while leaving the obligatory prayer with the congregation; this is not permissible. In any case, if it is easy for you to pray over the funeral, accompany it, attend its burial, and seek forgiveness for the deceased, that is a good thing. The one who prays over the funeral receives a qirat of reward like a great mountain, and the one who prays over it and follows it to the grave receives two qirats like two great mountains of reward. This is a great favor. Here we emphasize what was issued by the Permanent Committee as a fatwa regarding those who follow the mosques where there are funerals and pray over them before the imam, snatching the prayer over them, praying before the imam in order to go to the second and third mosque. My brother, pray over the funeral with the congregation and with the imam, supplicate for it, accompany it, walk with it, and attend its burial so that you obtain the perfection of the reward. As for you stepping over people in the mosques and encroaching on the imam's right by praying over the funeral before him, this is not appropriate. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Abu Ali says: Honorable Shaykh, I make every effort to pray over the dead, and I go to distant mosques for the sake of praying over them. However, I may miss the 'Asr prayer, and I may also miss the takbirat. What is the ruling on this?
Answer:
The ruling is that you should not strain yourself to do such a thing. If it is easy for you to pray over the funeral, accompany it, and follow it, that is better. If it involves strain, hardship, and distance, and you also mentioned that you miss the obligatory prayer. Yes.
This is not permissible, my brother. You would be pursuing a voluntary prayer while leaving the obligatory prayer with the congregation; this is not permissible. In any case, if it is easy for you to pray over the funeral, accompany it, attend its burial, and seek forgiveness for the deceased, that is a good thing. The one who prays over the funeral receives a qirat of reward like a great mountain, and the one who prays over it and follows it to the grave receives two qirats like two great mountains of reward. This is a great favor. Here we emphasize what was issued by the Permanent Committee as a fatwa regarding those who follow the mosques where there are funerals and pray over them before the imam, snatching the prayer over them, praying before the imam in order to go to the second and third mosque. My brother, pray over the funeral with the congregation and with the imam, supplicate for it, accompany it, walk with it, and attend its burial so that you obtain the perfection of the reward. As for you stepping over people in the mosques and encroaching on the imam's right by praying over the funeral before him, this is not appropriate. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 02/292 — archive.org (7:32)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.