#701: Ruling on Salātu Al-Ghā’ib (Janāzah on an absent Corpse).
QUESTION:
‘Questions. Assalāmu Alikum what is the evidence of praying Solatul Janaza in the absence of dead body? Especillay when other sect of Muslims has already done it?”
ANSWER:
Wa Alaykum Salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh.
This Question has two questions lumped into one.
The First: Salātu Al-Ghā’ib (Janāzah on an absent Corpse).
About this, the Ulamā differed.
The position held by Imām Ash-Shāfi’ī and Ahmad was that it were permissible.
Their evidence for this is the Hadith recorded in the Sahihayn from Abū Hurayrah – radiyallāhu ‘anhu – that the Rasūl – Salallāhu ‘alayhi wasallam – observed the Janāzah on An-Najjāshī in absentia on the day he passed away, he came out with the Companions to the Praying Field and made Four Takbirāt.
The Hanafī and Mālikī positions is that this is not permissible generally and they responded to the position held by the Shāfi’ī and Hanbalī Schools by saying that the story of An-Najjāshī was specific to the Rasūl -salallāhu alayhi wasallam – since He was informed of the passing of An-Najjāshī by way of Wah’y (Revelation).
Imām Al-Kharshī – rahimahullāh – of the Mālikī Fellows mentioned this in his Hāshiyah, and Al-Kasā’ī Al-Hanafī in the Badā’i
Another position recorded from Imām Ahmad is that mentioned by Ibn Taymiyyah in his Fatāwah that Ahmad only considered it permissible for the one who was a Notable Leader of the Muslims or from whom the Ummah benefitted.
This position was shared by As-Sa’adī – rahimahullāh.
Then, some other Ulamā held that it was only permissible if the Janāzah was not done on the dead where he was by any community of Muslims.
This is the position favoured by Shaykhu Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and his Student Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah Rahimahumullāh.
It was also the position of ‘Abdul Qawiyy as was mentioned by Al-Mardāwī in Al-Insāf.
Of the contemporaries, it is also the position held by Shaykh Muhammad bn Sālih Al-‘Uthaymīn and others.
As for what is strongest, and Allāh knows best, it is the position held by Shaykhu Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah – rahimahullāh as there is no proof to support the position of the Mālikis that it was specific to the Rasūl – salallāhu alayhi Wasallam –
It is an agreed upon Usūlī Precept that nothing of the Legislations of the Sharī’ah are restricted to the Rasūl – Salallāhu Alayhi Wasallam – except what evidence proves to be such as he was sent to the entirety of Creation.
Likewise, the position that it is only permissible to be done for one of notability in the Ummah seems weak too as there is no evidence to prove same, and many notable people passed away in the era of the Rasūl – salallāhu Alayhi Wasallam – and the Sahābah and he never observed it upon them.
Though the Ulamā that hold this position are in the majority among the Ulamā past and present and they held that it is only a Recommendation and does not carry the Hukm of Fard Kifāyah as is the general ruling of the Janāzah Prayers.
And this is what is practiced across the Muslim world as observed.
But what seems apparent is that the Rasūl – salallāhu Alayhi Wasallam – observed it on An-Najjāshī who passed away far away in the distant land of Kuffār.
And Allāh knows best.
The Second: Salātu Al-Ghā’ib on the one upon whom the Janāzah has been made.
You have seen in the above the difference of the Ulamā on this and the condition laid down by Shaykhu Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.
Imām Al-Khattābī – rahimahullāh – also attributed this position to Ar-Rūyānī among the Shāfi’ī Imams.
The Shāfi’īs mentioned another condition, as was mirrored by the Imām Zakariyyah Al-Ansārī – rahimahullāh – in Asnā Al-Matālib that it is only permissible to be observed by the one who is alive and up to the discernable age at the time of death of the deceased.
This is very apparent, that the one who comes years after the passing of the deceased may not think it is required or permissible of him.
And Allāh knows best.
As to whether it should be repeated if the community of Muslims that observed it were the people of Bid’ah, then this is an unnecessary thinking.
The Primary Condition for the acceptance of the Salāt of a Person, whether Obligatory or Voluntary is Islām and as long as a person’s Bid’ah does not take him out of the fold of Islam, there is no doubting the acceptance of his Salāt.
This is a Precept.
All of the Fuqahā are agreed upon this.
Therefore, you are not expected to doubt the soundness of the Salāt of the People that observed the Janāzah as long as you have not considered them all Kuffār by virtue of their Bid’ah.
And the considering of a Muslim as Kāfir has it’s Conditions ( Shurūt) and it’s Impediments ( Mawāni’) that have been elucidated in the Reference Books by the Polymath Ulamā of the Dīn, and Allāh knows best.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.
📚IslamNode
