A funeral took place on this day before the tarawih prayer, so which is better: following the funeral or praying the tarawih prayer?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : A questioner says: O honorable Shaykh, a funeral took place on this day before the tarawih prayer. So which is better: following the funeral or praying the tarawih prayer? And what is better for the imam: should he delay the funeral prayer until after tarawih, or hasten it?
The Shaykh : We now have a conflict between two things, and both are missed if one chooses the other: following the funeral and tarawih. So do we follow the funeral and leave tarawih, or the reverse? We look at tarawih: if a person misses it, he only misses the congregational prayer, because he can pray tahajjud in his home, having the time from the 'Isha' prayer until the dawn. And if he misses the funeral and stays for tarawih, the funeral is missed. So based on this teaching, the funeral is given priority. However, if he fears that if he goes out with the funeral he will become lazy and miss tahajjud, let him stay, unless he is compelled to go out with the funeral because there are not enough people present to fulfill the collective obligation. In that case, he follows the funeral.
The Shaykh : We now have a conflict between two things, and both are missed if one chooses the other: following the funeral and tarawih. So do we follow the funeral and leave tarawih, or the reverse? We look at tarawih: if a person misses it, he only misses the congregational prayer, because he can pray tahajjud in his home, having the time from the 'Isha' prayer until the dawn. And if he misses the funeral and stays for tarawih, the funeral is missed. So based on this teaching, the funeral is given priority. However, if he fears that if he goes out with the funeral he will become lazy and miss tahajjud, let him stay, unless he is compelled to go out with the funeral because there are not enough people present to fulfill the collective obligation. In that case, he follows the funeral.