Islamic Fiqh > Funerals > The funeral procession and the burial
Following the funeral procession: walking, silence, standing and sitting, and the burial: depth, orientation, ta'siyya and invocations.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
From the washing to the cemetery, the encyclopedia frames each gesture of the funeral procession, distinguishing unanimity from school divergence.
Al-Shafi'i writes: « I love haste in all the affairs of the funeral ». The classical exception: the drowned person, buried after delay for fear some breath of life remains, and some sick whose death remains doubtful (Ibn Rushd).
The majority (Hanafis, Malikis, Shafi'is in the mazhab, Hanbalis) does not recommend standing when a procession passes, relying on Ali's report: « we saw the Messenger of Allah stand, and we stood; he sat, and we sat » (Muslim 962), understood as abrogated. Ahmad in one transmission, Ibn Taymiyya, al-Mutawalli and an-Nawawi retain the recommendation, based on the hadiths: « when you see a funeral, stand until it passes you or is laid down » (al-Bukhari 1245) and the lesson given at a Jewish procession's passing: « death is a fright » (al-Bukhari 1249).
Malikis, Shafi'is and Hanbalis prefer walking in front of the procession, the dead being an intercessor and the intercessor walking ahead: Ibn Umar saw the Prophet, Abu Bakr and Umar walking thus. The Hanafis prefer walking behind, on « follow the funeral processions » and Ali's word comparing walking in front to supererogatory prayer. The rider follows behind according to Hanafis, Malikis and Hanbalis; Shafi'is prefer in front in every case.
Hanafis, Hanbalis and an-Nawawi recommend remaining standing until the bier is set down, based on the words: « when you follow a funeral, do not sit until it is laid down » (al-Bukhari 1310); Malikis and Shafi'is in the mazhab deem that order abrogated by Ali's report, others leaving the choice.
The jurists recommend restraint during the walk: no raising of the voice by recitation or remembrance, silence being the early generations' choice according to an-Nawawi, who cites Qays ibn Abbad: « the Companions disliked raising the voice in three situations: in combat, at funerals and in the remembrance of Allah ». As for women, the majority discourages their following the processions, on Umm Atiyya's report: « we were forbidden to follow the processions without being compelled to stay »; Malik allows a woman to follow the funeral of her child, her parent or her husband when custom knows it.
Burying at night is discouraged before the prayer has been performed: « the Prophet disapproved that a man be buried at night before prayer was performed over him » (Muslim 943). On the grave's shape, Abu Hanifa, Malik and Ahmad retain the central hump (mursed), al-Shafi'i the flattening, each with his text. Gathering relatives in one cemetery is recommended, based on the Prophet's words after Uthman ibn Maz'un's burial: « I will bury beside him whoever of my family dies » (Abu Dawud 3206). Two bodies in one grave arise only in need, separated by earth; burying a dead in another's grave is forbidden until the first has wholly decayed. Payment of the washer, bearer and burier is admitted by most schools with dislike, unless the task becomes his exclusive obligation.
Hurried silence, gathered walking, a sober grave: the procession joins respect for the dead and restraint of the living.