What is the ruling on performing the funeral prayer inside the cemetery in a place designated for that purpose, which is not a grave but an area free of the dead?

Al-Halabi : The second question: What is the ruling on performing the funeral prayer inside the cemetery in a place designated for prayer that contains no graves, but is rather open land?

The Shaykh : If there is a barrier between the cemetery and this open land, then praying there is permissible; otherwise, it is not. There must be a wall separating the prayer area, the place for the funeral prayer, from the cemetery. It is better, if possible, that the worshippers not face the cemetery, even if a wall is built around all sides of the land; rather, the cemetery should be to their right or to their left. Is the answer clear?

The questioner : Yes?

The Shaykh : I said that if the land where the worshippers perform the funeral prayer, and let us call this land the prayer area, is enclosed by a wall built around it and separated from the cemetery, then it is permissible to pray in this land because of its separation from the cemetery by the wall. However, the more preferable, more in accordance with the Sunnah, and better option is for the land of the prayer area to be to the right of the cemetery or to its left, and for the cemetery not to be in the qiblah direction of the land, even if there is a separating wall between the land and the cemetery. Is it clear?

The questioner : Is that clear?