The
salāt of janāza is fard-i kifāya for men who hear (of the death), and, if there
are no men, for women. It is not makrūh for one woman to perform it alone or
for more than one women to form a jamāat (and perform it in jamāat). A person
who slights (the janāza salāt) becomes a kāfir (unbeliever). There are six
conditions to be fulfilled for the salāt (of janāza) to be acceptable:
1 -
The dead person must be a Muslim.
2 - The corpse must have been washed. If it has been interred before
having been washed but has not been covered up with earth yet, it is taken out
and washed and then the salāt is performed. The place where the corpse and the
imām are must be clean. It is not a condition for the jamāats place to be
clean. For, the fard will have been carried out by only the imāms performing
the salāt. If the clothes, the shoes and the place stood on are najs (foul) the
salāt will not be sahīh. Tahtāwī
rahmatullāhi taālā aleyh states in his explanation entitled Imdād: If the corpse is in a clean coffin and if
you take off your shoes the upper parts of which are clean and stand on them,
the grounds being najs does not give any harm. If a woman or jāriya conducts
the salāt as the imām the fard will have been carried out. For, though the
salāt of the men who follow the woman will not be accepted, the womans salāt
of janāza will be accepted and the fard will have been carried out by one
person having performed the salāt. It is permissible for a child to wash the
corpse, but it is not permissible for it to conduct the salāt of janāza.
3 -
The corpse or half of the corpse and its head or more than half of it without
its head must be ahead of the imām.
4 -
The corpse must be on the ground or close to the ground, held with hands or
placed on a stone (bench). If the corpse is at some other place or on a beast
or raised on hands, the salāt of janāza will not be accepted. The corpses head
must be to the imāms right and its feet must be to his left. It is sinful to
place it the other way round.
5 -
The corpse must be ready and in front of the imām.
6 -
The awrat parts of the corpse and of the imām must be covered.
1 -
To make the tekbīr (to say Allahuakber) four times.
2 -
To perform it standing. It is not permissible to perform it
sitting or on a beast without any udhr
(excuse, imperfection, inability to perform an act in the prescribed manner).
It is permissible if you cannot get down from your beast because of rain or
mud.
1 -
To say the Subhānaka.
2 - To
say the Salawāt. For, it is the sunna of prayers to say the Salawāt before
prayers.
3 -
To say the ones you know of the prayers that have been prescribed for
(entreating Allah for) mercy and forgiveness for yourself, for the dead person,
and for all Muslims.
1 -
For bāghīs, that is, for rebels; that is, if those who revolt unjustly against
the Khalīfa are killed while fighting, their salāt is not performed. Nor is it
necessary to wash them.
2-
When bandits who waylay Muslims are killed in a fight, they are not washed and
their salāt is not performed.
If the bāghīs and the bandits escape and then are killed during such
chastisements as hadd and qisās, they are washed and their salāt is performed.
3 -
If clans notorious for their cruelty are killed in a fight their salāt is not
performed.
4 -
If an armed person raiding a house is killed in the act, his salāt is not
performed.
A
suicide, that is, a person who has killed himself, is washed and his salāt is
performed even if he died immediately. It is written in Hindiyya that suicide
is more sinful than killing someone else.
When
a person who has killed his mother or father is killed by qisās (taliation) his
salāt is not performed.
Each of the four tekbīrs of the salāt of janāza is like a rakat. The
hands are lifted up to the ears only with the first tekbīr. They are not lifted
with the next three tekbīrs. After both hands are fastened, the Subhānaka is recited, and the words, Wa jalla thenāuka are
added in the recitation. The Sūrat-al Fātiha is not recited. After the second
tekbīr the Salawāt is recited exactly as it is recited during the tashahhud
(sitting posture in the daily prayers of salāt). After the third tekbīr the
duā of janāza is recited. Presently after the fourth tekbīr the salām is
performed (by turning the head) first to the right and then to the left. [So
far
we have not been able to find any
information in books concerning when the hands should be let to hang down. It
is written in the marginal notes of the books Durer
and Halabī-i-saghīr: Hands are tied
while doing the (prescribed) recitals during the standing posture. If there is
no recital the hands are let to hang down. First the hands are let to hang
down, and then the salām is made to both sides. We saw our superiors hang down
their right hands as they made the salām to the right and their left hands
while making the salām to the left. (According to the quotation borrowed from
the abovenamed books), it is equally inferrable that both hands are let down
before the salām is made.] While performing the salām, an intention for the
dead person and the jamāat must be made. The imām says only the four tekbīrs
and the salām to both shoulders aloud; he does the other recitations silently.
[The duā of janāza is a certain prayer, instead of which Rabbanā ātina
fī-d-dunyā... is recited or one may only say, Allāhummaghfir leh, or the
Sūrat-al Fātiha without the Basmala may be recited with the intention of saying
a prayer. Saying prayers brings forgiveness to the dead person. And it brings
promotion to Prophets (alaihimussalām) and
children. If forty or a hundred people make a jamāat in three lines, this
brings forgiveness to the dead person. The salāt is performed before interment].
With the salāt of janāza, there is more thawāb in (standing in) the hindmost
line.
If
the imām says a fifth tekbīr instead of performing the salām with the fourth
tekbīr, the jamāat must not say it too. Waiting silently, they must perform
the salām together with the imām.
The imām stands exactly opposite the corpses chest. A person who is
late for the beginning of the salāt does not begin as soon as he comes. He
waits and then begins by saying the tekbīr as the imām says one of the tekbīrs;
he intends this tekbīr to be his Tekbīr iftitāh
(beginning); and after the imām recites the salām, he says the tekbīrs he has
missed one right after the other, and then makes the salām without reciting
anything. He who misses the fourth tekbīr has missed the salāt.
If
there are several corpses at the same time, it is very good to perform salāt
for each of them separately. It is permissible as well to perform one salāt for
all of them. For doing this, the corpses must be arranged in such an order that
each corpse will be put on the left hand side and its head will be in line with
the feet of the other. The imām performs the salāt standing opposite the one
with the highest rank. Thus some of the corpses are to the right of
the imām and others are to his left. Or,
all the corpses being arranged side by side in front of the imām, the imām
stands opposite the chests of all of them. Mens corpses have precedence and
are placed first, then come boys, womens, girls corpses, respectively.
[While making the niyya (intention) for them, it is not necessary to say that
they are men or women].
The
salāt of janāza is conducted by the head of the State. In his absence it is
conducted by the head of the government; next comes the governor, and then
come, respectively, the judge, the governor of the town, the vice-governor of
the town, the assistant judge, and the imām of the quarter. If the walī
(guardian) of the dead person is sālih (pious, devoted Muslim), the walī
conducts the salāt in the absence of the imām. Only a man can be a walī; a
woman cannot be the walī, nor can a child. A walī is one of ones close
relatives of consanguinity. The husband cannot be (the wifes) walī. But if
there is no walī present, the husband can conduct the salāt of janāza (for his
wife). Those who have the right to give the young child in marriage are his (or
her) walī. The father takes precedence over the son in being a persons walī,
that is, owner, guardian. If a dead person has no sons, brothers, paternal or
maternal uncles, or a husband, one of the neighbors conducts the salāt. The
walīs can appoint any non-relative their deputy (to conduct the salāt). Someone
else, even if he is the person willed by the dead person, can conduct the salāt
with the walīs permission. If such a person conducts it without permission,
the walī may repeat the salāt.
If
the corpse has been interred and covered with earth without the salāt having
been performed or after the salāt has been performed without the corpse having
been washed, the salāt must be performed on the grave unless it is strongly
believed that the corpse has putrefied. The beginning of putrefaction depends
on the kind of earth, the season, the weather, and on whether the corpse is fat
or thin. It varies between three days to one month (after burial).
[Such
words as The nose falls on the fortieth day, The corpse begins to rot on the
fifty-third night are not true, and it is wrong to have (the celebrated eulogy
called) Mawlīd performed (only) on these nights. They are the words of a
tomb-keeper named Ahmad, who claimed to have seen them in his dream. Every
service done for the dead is an act of worship. Worships are learnt only from
āyats, hadīths, and the words of mujtahids. Worships cannot be changed
haphazardly with the words of this
person or that or with dreams. Those who
want to change or defile worships become a kāfir (unbeliever). Such services as
reading the Qurān, giving alms, saying prayers that are to be done for the
dead must not be done on the fifty-third night (fifty-three days after death);
we must try to rescue them by doing these services on the first day. Postponing
these services till the seventh, the fortieth or the fifty-third night is like
saying, Wait for a while. Ill come to your rescue a few days later, to a person
who is about to drown. Hadrat Muhammad Mathūm says in the eleventh letter of
the first volume of his Maktūbāt, It
will be a very good and great worship to give food and alms to the poor not
customarily or for ostentation but for Allahs sake and to gift the thawāb to
the dead persons soul. But there is no dependable report saying that this must
be done on a certain day or night. That is, there is no such principle. Many a
time I have seen ads in Istanbul newspapers announcing that there will be religious
rites at a Christian cemetery for some dead Christians on the fortieth day (of
their death) and that their acquaintances are invited. When I asked them they
said that it was their custom to help a dead person on the fortieth day of his
or her death. This shows that performing such services as alms and mawlīd for
the dead on certain days is a Christian disease which has spread among Muslims,
too].
It is
harām in the Madhhabs of Hanafī and Mālikī to place the corpse inside the
mosque and perform the salāt of janāza there. There are some savants who say
that it is not makrūh if the corpse is outside the mosque and some of the
jamāat are inside it, but it is harām to perform the salāt in that manner,
too. All the jamāat must perform the salāt outside. For, mosques are built for
performing the five daily prayers of salāt and their subsidiaries, such as the
salāt which is supererogatory, sunna, [or qadā], for reading (the Qurān or
other religious books), for preaching and teaching the religion. In case of such
udhrs as rain, a storm, or illness, the salāt of janāza can be performed
inside the mosque. But the corpse cannot be taken inside.
A
child that dies right after birth is washed, its salāt is performed, it is
entitled to be a heir and to leave inheritance, and it is named. A child that
is born dead is not washed and its salāt is not performed if it is not four
months old. If it is four months old it is washed, shrouded in one piece and
buried; but its salāt is not performed. The same is done when a child taken
captive together with its parents dies and when an insane adult person taken
captive dies. Such people will not go to
Hell, but in the world they are treated like disbelievers. When a child taken
captive without its parents or a child taken captive with its parents one of
whom has been converted to Islam later or a discreet (seven-year-old) child
that has been converted to Islam dies, its salāt is performed. For being
converted to Islam, a disbeliever has to say the Kalimat-i sahahādat completely
and believe the six principles of īmān, [that is, Āmentu], when he hears them.
You
should not ask an unlearned person the principles of īmān and Islam; you should
recount them to him and then ask him if he believes them. If his answer is
affirmative, he is a Muslim. If an unlearned person asked about īmān and Islam
does not answer, it is all right. For, he says he does not know (or he does not
answer at all) because he thinks the answer is to say certain words in a
certain order. In other words, what he says he does not know is not īmān itself
but how to express īmān. It is not wājib for a Muslim to wash, to shroud or to
bury a disbeliever. A disbeliever is delivered to other disbelievers. If there
are no other disbelievers, it is permissible to wash him as you would wash
dirty clothes, to wrap him in a piece of cloth and bury him in a Christian
cemetery. A dead renegade is not washed or shrouded; nor is he delievered to
the people of the religion he has converted to; like a dogs carcass he is left
in a ditch. Whether a Muslim or an unbeliever, a corpse is never burned. Nor
are its ashes kept. It is not permissible to break or cut the bones of a corpse
even if it is an unbelievers.
It is
not permissible for an unbeliever to wash a Muslims corpse, be it his
relative.
We have stated that there are three times when it is not permissible to
perform the salāt in the chapter dealing with Prayer
Times of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss. If a corpse has been
prepared before one of these three times it is not permissible to postpone the
salāt of janāza till that time begins. It is written in Marāqil-falāh, It is not makrūh but it is
permissible to bury a corpse at (one of) these (three) times. It is
permissible to perform the salāt of janāza at any time of the day. It is not
necessary to postpone it till after one of the five daily prayers of salāt.
The
salāt of janāza is performed once. It becomes supererogatory if it is performed
again even after one woman has performed it. It is makrūh to perform the salāt
of janāza as a supererogatory salāt.
It is fard-i kifāya to perform the salāt of janāza, to wash, shroud,
arrange and bury the corpse, and it is wājib to perform the salāt of Iyd; yet
(in cases when the salāt of janāza concurs with the salāt of Iyd) the salāt of
Iyd is performed first lest those who are late for the jamāat confuse the
salāt of janāza with the salāt of Iyd. It is explained in the chapter dealing
with the salāt of Iyd (in the fourth fascicle) that the salāt of janāza for a
corpse that is ready takes precedence over the Khutba of Iyd and over the
final sunnats of Friday, evening, night and noon prayers. However, the books Hilya and Bahr
state that the final sunnats must be performed first, right after the fard. It
is mandūb (not obligatory but very good) to make haste for the washing,
shrouding and burying of the corpse and for the salāt.
[As it is seen, it has been said by savants that the salāt of janāza is
performed before or after the sunnats. But no savant has said that the sunnats
are omitted to perform the salāt of janāza. Therefore, at times when the salāt
of janāza will be performed the tasbīhs (that are said after each of the five
daily prayers of salāt) in mosques must not be omitted. Those who say that they
have been omitting the tasbīhs because it is wājib to perform the salāt of
janāza as soon as possible are wrong. It is not wājib but it is mustahab to
make haste for the salāt of janāza. It is a grave mistake to keep the corpse
waiting for hours so that the jamāat will be large. In fact, it is makrūh to
delay the salāt of janāza in order to get a large jamāat; and the mistake
becomes even graver when you omit the Āyat al kursī and the tasbīhs of the
salāt this time for the sake of performing the salāt of janāza as soon as
possible. There shall be glad tidings for those muadhdhins who will eradicate
this wrong practice by saying the Āyat-al kursī and the tasbīhs when there is a
janāza (corpse), too. Please see the final part of the fourteenth chapter (How Do We Perform The Salāt) of the fourth
fascicle].
It is not permissible to pray beside the coffin after the salāt of
janāza is performed. It is written in Zubdat-ul-maqāmāt
After the salāt of janāza for Hadrat Imām Rabbānī qaddas-Allāhu taālā
sirrah-ul-azīz was performed, they did not stay there to pray; he was taken
directly to the cemetery. It is written in books of fiqh that it is makrūh to
pray standing after the salāt of janāza. Some imāms do so, but it is against
the sunna. [It is written in the fatwā of Bezāziyya
also that it is not permissible].