Islamic Fiqh > Funerals > Special cases of funerals
The child, the martyr, the suicide, the criminal, the absent, the drowned, the cremated and the non-Muslim: funeral rules for special cases.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
Battle martyr, person killed unjustly, stillborn child, deceased pregnant woman: the encyclopedia gathers here the cases outside the ordinary regime of washing and prayer.
The four schools agree: the martyr killed in combat is neither washed nor prayed over, he is buried in his clothes with his blood, after removal of metal and leather, based on the order given over the dead of Uhud (Ibn Abbas's report, judged weak in its chain; the consensus is recorded by an-Nawawi). The definitions differ: the Hanafis include whoever the polytheists killed or who was found on the field with a mark, and also the one killed unjustly; the Malikis restrict it to the one killed in the engagement; an-Nawawi gives the Shafi'i definition: whoever dies because of the fighting while it rages, whatever hand struck him; the Hanbalis retain death by combat at the time of combat.
Hanafis and Ahmad in one transmission do not wash him, assimilating him to the martyr, on the words « whoever is killed defending his property is a martyr »; Malikis, Shafi'is and Ahmad in the other transmission wash him and pray over him, his death not reaching the battle martyr's rank.
Whoever goes out for combat and dies of illness before the engagement is not a battle martyr: he is washed, shrouded and prayed over like any Muslim, while being a martyr in the hereafter if his intention was sincere (al-Kasani, al-Mawardi).
If he cried or showed a sign of life, he is washed and prayed over by unanimity (Ibn al-Mundhir). If formed at four months without a sign of life: Hanafis (the soundest view), Shafi'is (in the mazhab) and Hanbalis wash him; Malikis, Shafi'is (in the other view) and Hanafis in one transmission confine themselves to washing his blood and wrapping him. The prayer is given only after the cry according to the majority (hadith: « the child is not prayed over, nor does he inherit or pass on inheritance, before he cries », at-Tirmidhi 1032); Abu Hanifa and Ahmad in an early view give it (Abu Dawud 3180).
If the child's life is hoped for, Hanafis, Shafi'is and Malik in one transmission order opening the belly to extract him, present life outweighing the inviolability of the dead. Hanbalis and Malikis (the retained view) reject the incision: midwives remove the child naturally, and the mother is buried only after certainty of his death, based on the words: « breaking the dead one's bone is like breaking the living one's bone » (Abu Dawud 3207 ; Ibn Majah 1616).
The most prudent solution, retained by the majority: burying her in a separate grave between the two cemeteries, her back to the qibla so the child's face faces it. The Shafi'is carry two other views: burying her in the Muslims' cemetery because of the child (Umar's report), or among her people (the retained view among the Malikis).
Each case settles by one balance: present life prevails, certainty of death conditions burial, and the martyr's status depends on the battlefield.