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The
Funeral Prayer is a sufficiency obligation; a religious obligation that if a
sufficient number fulfil, the rest are pardoned. This suggests that the Funeral
Prayer becomes obligatory on every Muslim who is informed of the death, however
out of those informed people even if a few attend the Funeral Prayer, the rest
are excused from the fulfilment of this obligation. However, if no one attends
the Funeral Prayer then all the people have committed a great sin.
The
following are the terms, conditions and details of the Funeral Prayer:-
1.
To
perform the Funeral Prayer the body must be clean, the appropriate parts of the
body must be covered, one should be facing towards the Holy Kaba and one must
make the intention to pray.
2.
These
days it is common practise to offer the Funeral Prayer whilst keeping the shoes
on. In this case one should take care of two things, the first one being that
the place where one is offering Prayer is clean and secondly that the shoes are
clean, even if one takes the feet out of the shoes and places them on the
shoes, or else the Prayer will be void.
3.
There
are two actions that are obligatory when offering the Funeral Prayer; to say
‘Allāhu Akbar’ four times and to remain standing.
4.
The
Funeral Prayer is the same for the Imām and the ones who follow behind the
Imām. The only difference is that the Imām recites the Takbeers and says the
Salām in a raised voice whereas the followers say it quietly. The followers and
the Imām both recite the rest of the Prayer quietly.
5.
The
actions that make the normal Prayer void also make the Funeral Prayer void.
6.
To
prolong the Funeral Prayer in hope that more people will arrive is undesirable.
7.
The
Sunnat way to lift the coffin is for each person to take a turn to lift the
front right-hand side on to the left shoulder and walk forward ten steps, and
then to lift the back right-hand side on to the left shoulder and again walk
ten steps. After this, the front left-hand side and then the back left-hand
side. Each person taking forty steps altogether in this way is a Sunnat.
When
lowering the body into the grave it is favourable to say:-
‘We have
placed you in the grave while attaining blessings from the Name of Allah and by
the Holy Prophet's religion’
بِسْمِ اللّٰہِ وَ عَلیٰ مِلَّۃِ رَسُوْلِ
اللّٰہِ
After
placing the body in the grave the soil that was taken out when digging it
should all be put back. The preferred way to do this is to start from the side
of the head. Each person should fill both hands three times with soil and put
it in the grave. The first time one should recite منْھا
خلقْنکمْ ,
the second time recite وَ فِیْھَا نُعِیْدُکُمْ and lastly recite وَ فِیْھَا
نُعِیْدُکُمْ .
It is preferable to sprinkle
water over the grave once the soil has been put back
in. the water should be sprinkled starting at the head side down towards the
feet side.
It is a
virtuous deed to stay beside the grave for a while after the burial and pray
for the salvation of the buried one. When the Holy Prophet had finished with
the burial of the body he would stand beside the grave and say:-
ْتَغْفِرُ
و اللّٰہَ لِاَخِیْکُمْ وَاسْءَلُوا لَہٗ بِالتَّثْبِیْتِ فَاِنَّہٗ اَلْاٰنَ
یُسْأَلُ
‘Pray to
Allah for the forgiveness and salvation of your brother and request for his
steadfastness (when being cross-questioned by Munkar and Nakeer, two angels) as
at this moment in time, he is being questioned’
After
burial the first few verses of Sūrah Baqara should be recited up to مفْلحوْن
while standing beside the head side and then the ending verses starting
from اٰمَنَ الرسوْل should be recited right to the end while standing beside the
feet.
It is
not good practice to laugh, joke, smoke cigarettes and the like when at a
graveyard. It is the saying of the Holy Prophet that out of the participants at
a funeral the best is he who remains engrossed in the remembrance of Allah and
does not sit down until after the coffin is taken down from the shoulders.
KHWAJA SHAMSUDDIN AZEEMI
Mehrāj means to enter the world of the unseen. When a believer attains Mehrāj through prayer, Angels appear in front of him. He travels through the Heavens, and through the blessings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) he comes to know his Lord.
