Janazah Prayer Female

[Pavido Scalf]

Severalpeople in the community have asked me regarding whether it is permissible for Muslim women to visit a graveyard. In this article, I will discuss the various opinions that are derived from the Prophetic tradition, the rulings which are practiced upon, agreed upon, and disagreed upon.

Historically, attending the burial and visiting the graveyard were simultaneous issues. But since there was some differences of opinion regarding both of these issues, I have separated them for the sake of this article.

As for the first point, it is recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and Musnad Ahmad that there is a great reward for the one who attends the Janazah prayer, regardless of their gender. Though different hadiths are mentioned with different narrators and wordings in the hadith collections, I will mention the hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari in the Book of Funerals (كتاب الجنائز):

حدثنا قبيصة بن عقبة حدثنا سفيان عن خالد الحذاء عن أم الهذيل عن أم عطية رضي الله عنها قالت نهينا عن اتباع الجنائز ولم يعزم علينا

Though this hadith is graded authentic (sahih), one must understand how its wording is understood, as well as the context surrounding the hadith. It was common during the days of jahiliyyah for families of the deceased to hire professional female mourners (نائحات) who would wail loudly, rip their clothes, slap their cheeks, and eulogize the deceased in hyperbolized ways. Due to the transference of this practice of from the days of jahiliyyah to the days of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, it was considered disliked for women to follow funerals to their burials, as there was a significant chance that these professionally hired female mourners would be present amongst them. One of the main issues surrounding the mourners was that they would rip their own clothing and expose immodest parts of their bodies while the janazah would be going on.

Even in this context, the prohibition mentioned in this hadith is not an actual prohibition, rather, it is referring to a prohibitively disliked action. It is common in many hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ to use a negating statement to express dislike, as opposed to a prohibited action.

في إسناده دينار أبي عمر وهو وإن وثقه وكيع وذكره ابن حبان في الثقات فقد قال أبو حاتم ليس بالمشهور وقال الأزدي متروك وقال الخليلي في الإرشاد كذاب وإسماعيل بن سليمان قال فيه أبو حاتم صالح لكن ذكره ابن حبان في الثقات وقال يخطئ

The Hanafi school leans towards the ruling of it being prohibitively disliked for Muslim women to attend the burial. Later day Hanafi scholars leaned towards it being either generally disliked or permitted based on the lack of or presence of practices from the days of jahiliyyah.

نهانا رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم عن ذلك نهي كراهة تنزيه لا نهي عزيمة تحريم . ومذهب أصحابنا أنه مكروه ليس بحرام لهذا الحديث قال القاضي : قال جمهور العلماء بمنعهن من اتباعهاوأجازه علماء المدينة وأجازه مالك وكرهه للشابة

In regards to women visiting the graves and attending the burial, two opinions are reported from Imam Ahmad in the Hanbali madhab. The first opinion is that it si disliked for Muslim women to visit the graveyard, while the second opinion is that it is permissible for them without any dislike.

يُكْرَهُ لِلْمَرْأَةِ اتِّبَاعُهَا عَلَى الصَّحِيحِ مِنْ الْمَذْهَبِ [نَصَّ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَيْهِ أَكْثَرُ الْأَصْحَابِ وَقِيلَ: يُكْرَهُ لِلْأَجْنَبِيَّةِ قَالَ ابْنُ أَبِي مُوسَى: قَدْ رَخَّصَ بَعْضُهُمْ لَهَا فِي شُهُودِ أَبِيهَا وَوَلَدِهَا وَذِي قَرَابَتِهَا مَعَ التَّحَفُّظِ وَالِاسْتِحْيَاءِ وَالتَّسَتُّرِ] وَقَالَ الْآجُرِّيُّ: يَحْرُمُ وَمَا هُوَ بِبَعِيدٍ فِي زَمَنِنَا هَذَا قَالَ أَبُو الْمَعَالِي: يَمْنَعُهُنَّ مِنْ اتِّبَاعِهَا وَقَالَ أَبُو حَفْصٍ: هُوَ بِدْعَةٌ يُطْرَدْنَ فَإِنْ رَجَعْنَ وَإِلَّا رَجَعَ الرِّجَالُ بَعْدَ أَنْ يَحْثُوَا عَلَى أَفْوَاهِهِنَّ التُّرَابَ قَالَ: وَرَخَّصَ الْإِمَامُ أَحْمَدُ فِي اتِّبَاعِ جِنَازَةٍ يَتْبَعُهَا النِّسَاءُ قَالَ أَبُو حَفْصٍ: وَيَحْرُمُ بُلُوغُ الْمَرْأَةِ الْقَبْرَ.

قال ابن المنذر : روينا عن ابن مسعود وابن عمر وأبى أمامة وعائشة أنهم كرهوا للنساء اتباع الجنائز وكره ذلك أبو أمامة ومسروق والنخعى والحسن ومحمد بن سيرين وهو قول الأوزاعى وأحمد وإسحاق

As it has been detailed above, an absolute prohibition against women following the Janazah to the graveyard is not the endorsed opinion (jumhoor) of any of the scholars of hadith , fuqaha, nor the madhabs. The difference of opinion that arose was due to whether the women would engage in customs of the days of jahiliyyah.

وقال الخير الرملي: إن كان ذلك لتجديد الحزن والبكاء والندب على ما جرت به عادتهن فلا تجوز وعليه حمل حديث: لعن الله زائرات القبور وإن كان للاعتبار والترحم من غير بكاء والتبرك بزيارة قبور الصالحين فلا بأس إذا كن عجائز. ويكره إذا كن شواب كحضور الجماعة في المساجد

لا بأس بزيارة القبور و هو قول أبي حنيفة رحمة الله تعالى و ظاهر قول محمد رحمة الله تعالى يقتضي الجواز للنساء أيضا لأنه لم يخص الرجال

As a Muslim living in the United States who has been to several burials, I have never seen an occasion where women were slapping their cheeks, ripping their clothes, etc. So if a burial or visit to the cemetery will not cause the women in the community to do as such, the ruling of it being permissible is applied.

Salatul Janzah is Fard Kafayah, that is, if one prays the prayer than all are bareeuz zimma [free of the responsiblity] otherwise all those who received the news but did not come are sinners. Jammat is not a condition for this prayer, it is sufficient even if one person prays, and to deny the fardiat, compulsion, of this salah is kufr, an act of disbelief.

Oh Allah! Forgive those of us that are alive and those of us that are dead; those of us that are present and those of us who are absent; those of us who are young and those of us who are adults; our males and our females. Oh Allah! Whomsoever You keep alive, let him live as a follower of Islam and whomsoever You cause to die, let him die a Believer.

Female can perform salat al-janaza as it's narrated in Sahih Muslim. So it's no bida'h at all if a woman performs this prayer, but a major condition for this is the presence of the corpse of the death person for whom this prayer is performed!

Most scholars say as the rules of the shari'a are valid for women and men and as there are no clear references saying that this worship is only valid for men they shouldn't be prohibited to perform it. But whether they can participate in the prayer if it would mean go out of their houses or not is still a bit unclear and a discussed matter among sunni scholars:

The majority of scholars say women can perform the janazah prayer in congregation in a mosque following the Imam and an other general permission can be derived form the following narration from sahih Muslim.

Some say women shouldn't go to the mosque to perform them and even use expressions like haram or makruh (see for example this fatwa in Arabic) because the say this follows the idea of following the Janaza which is prohibited.

On the other hand we'll have to know that the prayer of funeral is considered a fard kifya which means if some did it this would be sufficient and others wouldn't be regarded as sinners if they don't do.

Beside the funeral prayer we have a similar prayer for those who can not assist the funeral prayer themselves and want to perform this prayer it's called salat al-ghaib (the prayer of the absent), but it has some rulings. So you could do it for a relative who died far away from you, so that you might neither have the possibility to perform the janazah prayer nor pray it at his grave later. And mostly it is done for some people who have been useful for our religion as an-Najashi was and because of his death this prayer was introduced. So still women (and relatives who couldn't pray at the mosque or with the congregation whom prayed the janaza) could perform this prayer at their homes or later.

As those who dislike or prohibit the idea of women praying the salat al-janaza in a mosque use the fact that women preferably should pray at their homes as reason to not let them go and pray at the mosque!

This could be the question: Can women perform the janazah prayer before the "official" prayer in a mosque?

My first referenced fatwa* seem to answer this. As the prayer could be performed once the death person is washed and the corpse has been prepared for burial.

An other point could be is a janzah prayer valid if the death person is not0 (more exactly no more) around?

As usually for praying the janzah their are rules for where to put the death person in front of the Imam. And salat al-ghaib in this case wouldn't be acceptable, as the death person is not far away! So according this fatwa (in Arabic) -where a janazah congregation was held in presence of the wrong death body- the the presence of the death body of the person for whom the janazah is performed is mandatory, if not this isn't a valid prayer.Al-'Assimi an-Najdi العاصمي النجدي said in his comment on zad al-mustanqi' said (speaking about the mandatory conditions to perform salat al-janazah) - (My own translation take it carefully):

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