The absent one's funeral prayer (salat al-gha'ib)

Praying over a dead person absent from the town, with no body before one: the question opposes two school blocs, and the encyclopedia gives each side's texts.

Those who allow it

Shafi'is and Hanbalis allow it, whether the distance is short or long, the worshipper remaining oriented toward the qibla, based on the Negus hadith:

The Messenger of Allah announced to the people, while he was in Medina, the death of the Negus, master of Abyssinia, on the very day he died. He said: your brother has died; rise and pray over him. They formed two rows behind him and prayed as one prays over the dead, with four takbirs.Muslim 951

The prayer's place is the musalla, the worshipper praying as over a body present before him. Ibn Taymiyya adds a condition: the absent one be separated from the town by a distance akin to travel.

Those who refuse it

Hanafis and Malikis, and Ahmad in one transmission, refuse it and deem it disliked: the body's presence before the worshipper and orientation toward the qibla rank among the validity conditions, and both are missing here. Their complementary argument: many of the Prophet's close ones died in his time without it being reported that he prayed over them, he who said: « let none of you die without informing me, for my prayer over him is mercy » (an-Nasa'i 284 ; Ibn Majah 1528). His prayer over the Negus is then held as a peculiarity of the Prophet's.

Practical note

The two blocs share the same texts and diverge on their reach: the absent one's prayer remains possible according to part of the schools, and the prudent course is to follow one's school on this point.