What is the ruling on accompanying a funeral procession that is filled with religious innovations and imitating the funerals of the People of the Book, such as placing wreaths and the like?
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The questioner : What is the ruling on accompanying a funeral procession that is filled with religious innovations and imitating the funerals of the People of the Book, for example placing wreaths and the like?
The Shaykh : The reality is that accompanying funerals has become, today, a set of traditions. May these traditions be the innovations of the Muslims; rather, they are the traditions of the disbelievers in decorating funerals... And it is well known to the people of knowledge that in any society where there is evil, attending it is evil unless one rebukes that evil. Today, the Muslim is between two things if he wants to accompany the funeral and gain the virtue of accompanying it: either he remains silent, and this is not permissible because he will be recorded among those who attend evil and do not rebuke it, or he rebukes it, and this is extremely difficult today due to the people's ignorance and their habituation to these innovations and traditions from ancient times, before the existence of these new innovations... And these ceremonies that pertain to the car, accompanying it, and decorating the car itself with leaves and flowers; from ancient times, many discussions have taken place, unfortunately, among the scholars of Al-Azhar. The majority of them raise the voice and say takbirat (Allahu Akbar) before the funerals, and in the recent era, some of the mu'adhdhins (callers to prayer) would recite the Burdah poem in a loud voice... before the funeral. So, there in Egypt, a group of the people of the Sunnah, the most famous of them in this field being Shaykh Mahmud Khattab al-Sabki, rebuked these things. So the Al-Azhar scholars rose up against him, and he wrote treatises, and they wrote treatises in response to him. And such customs continue to prevail and progress, and they have added to them these foreign Western innovations. Therefore, we see that the obligatory thing in accompanying a funeral, if it occurs, is that it is better for the Muslim not to participate with the people in their innovations. As for if the obligatory thing does not occur, then at that time, this obligatory thing is not permissible to leave, so it is necessary. And in this case, one suffices with rebuking the evil at the third and last level, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):Sahih Muslim 49a other than that.
The Shaykh : The reality is that accompanying funerals has become, today, a set of traditions. May these traditions be the innovations of the Muslims; rather, they are the traditions of the disbelievers in decorating funerals... And it is well known to the people of knowledge that in any society where there is evil, attending it is evil unless one rebukes that evil. Today, the Muslim is between two things if he wants to accompany the funeral and gain the virtue of accompanying it: either he remains silent, and this is not permissible because he will be recorded among those who attend evil and do not rebuke it, or he rebukes it, and this is extremely difficult today due to the people's ignorance and their habituation to these innovations and traditions from ancient times, before the existence of these new innovations... And these ceremonies that pertain to the car, accompanying it, and decorating the car itself with leaves and flowers; from ancient times, many discussions have taken place, unfortunately, among the scholars of Al-Azhar. The majority of them raise the voice and say takbirat (Allahu Akbar) before the funerals, and in the recent era, some of the mu'adhdhins (callers to prayer) would recite the Burdah poem in a loud voice... before the funeral. So, there in Egypt, a group of the people of the Sunnah, the most famous of them in this field being Shaykh Mahmud Khattab al-Sabki, rebuked these things. So the Al-Azhar scholars rose up against him, and he wrote treatises, and they wrote treatises in response to him. And such customs continue to prevail and progress, and they have added to them these foreign Western innovations. Therefore, we see that the obligatory thing in accompanying a funeral, if it occurs, is that it is better for the Muslim not to participate with the people in their innovations. As for if the obligatory thing does not occur, then at that time, this obligatory thing is not permissible to leave, so it is necessary. And in this case, one suffices with rebuking the evil at the third and last level, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):