Ruling on traveling to attend a funeral
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If a scholar from among the Muslims passes away, is it permissible for anyone to travel to attend his burial or to pray over him?
I dislike this; I dislike anyone traveling just to pray over a person, because there is a difference between someone who dies in the town, where you go from your neighborhood to his and pray over him, and traveling. For this reason, traveling to visit graves is forbidden, while visiting graves within the town is a recommended practice (sunnah). Also, if we were to open this door, people here in the Kingdom would compete and vie with one another to go pray over the deceased, because the matter—praise be to Allah—is easy for us, with cars, airplanes, and easy routes. People would compete and vie in this, even though the intended purpose is for the deceased to benefit from the prayer. The deceased can benefit from supplication in any place. However, if it is assumed that a person travels to ward off talk and rumor, meaning that if he did not attend,And there was talk: why did this man not attend?So here we may say: He did not travel in order to pray over the deceased, because he knows that any supplication will benefit the deceased, but rather in order that the hypocrites not speak ill of people’s reputations. So if a person keeps this in mind, there is no harm in it, if Allah wills.
I dislike this; I dislike anyone traveling just to pray over a person, because there is a difference between someone who dies in the town, where you go from your neighborhood to his and pray over him, and traveling. For this reason, traveling to visit graves is forbidden, while visiting graves within the town is a recommended practice (sunnah). Also, if we were to open this door, people here in the Kingdom would compete and vie with one another to go pray over the deceased, because the matter—praise be to Allah—is easy for us, with cars, airplanes, and easy routes. People would compete and vie in this, even though the intended purpose is for the deceased to benefit from the prayer. The deceased can benefit from supplication in any place. However, if it is assumed that a person travels to ward off talk and rumor, meaning that if he did not attend,And there was talk: why did this man not attend?So here we may say: He did not travel in order to pray over the deceased, because he knows that any supplication will benefit the deceased, but rather in order that the hypocrites not speak ill of people’s reputations. So if a person keeps this in mind, there is no harm in it, if Allah wills.