Explanation of the rulings and benefits of accompanying funerals, and mentioning the innovations and abominations that occur in them, such as accompanying the funeral in a car.

The Shaykh : And if we return to remind you of some of our comments on accompanying funerals in some of the hadiths we passed over quickly just now, that accompanying funerals in this manner in which they are accompanied today is not of the Sunnah in any way. And now the matter becomes clear to you; for the custom of accompanying funerals by cars forbids many people from obtaining this great reward; because not every one of them is able to ride in a car, so he needs to accompany it from her home to the mosque where the prayer is performed over it, and then to its final resting place. And so you find today that funerals are accompanied in two forms:
The first—and it is the common one now—is by cars, so the number of those accompanying is few at first, and this is something that returns harm, or if we say negative harm, to the deceased; because these are the prominent people, they claim, so despite their fewness, they do not pray over the dead person, so the dead person does not benefit from their accompaniment in any way. So this accompaniment is what is prevalent now.
And the second type: accompanying on the shoulders as is the Sunnah, so you find those who accompany and those who carry the funeral on their shoulders are also fewer than few; that is because we live and are raised with a non-Islamic upbringing, and the Islamic upbringing springs from the softness of the children's nails, so he grows up and matures while he is bidding farewell from the smallest atmosphere, the smallest society, the society of the home, then the local, then then; so that he is able to carry the funeral on his shoulder when he becomes forty or fifty years old. But now we live a life of comfort and luxury, and are far from bearing weights and hardships; and so the soul suggests to us that we engage in these modern means without need, rather without necessity. And we said when a question came to us: perhaps the grave is far? So we say at that time that accompanying by car has a special ruling, but the research is that taking the custom of accompanying funerals in this way is contrary to the Sunnah, and it deprives the one accompanying and the one accompanying of the good. As for the one accompanying, the number of those praying over him decreases. And it came in the authentic hadiths, some of which mention that one who prayed over him a hundred people, some that one who prayed over her forty people, some that one who prayed over him three rows; we said: this will be intercession for this deceased and the one prayed over.
So these modern means that have been taken as a committed custom waste the benefit for the dead person first, and then for the companions secondly; so look now at how many and how many qirats are being lost to us because of this custom that has crept in to us from those who do not have even one qirat; because these qirats, you heard, for whom? For those who accompanied in faith and seeking reward. The disbelievers do not know anything of this; therefore we take from this hadith this important warning: that departing from the guidance of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in every obedience and every worship, even if it is from the category of a collective obligation in that, is a very, very great loss that people do not feel first due to their ignorance, and secondly due to their heedlessness, and both may coincide.
So whoever accompanies the funeral until he prays over it has the reward of a qirat, and the qirat's reward with Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is like Mount Uhud, and whoever continues to accompany it after the prayer over it until it is buried has the reward of two qirats.