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In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Dear questioner, we are greatly pleased to receive your question which shows the confidence you place in us. May Allah reward you abundantly for your interest in knowing the teachings of Islam.
Firstly, we earnestly implore Allah to remove oppression, injustice, hate from among the peoples of the world and to grant Muslims victory over their enemies, Amen.
Funeral prayer in absentia or salatul-gha'ib is subject to disagreement among Muslim jurists. The Hanbali and Shafi`i scholars permit it. However, Imam Abu Hanifah and Imam Malik state that it is reprehensible or makruh. We want to stress here that the issue of permissibility or reprehensibility should not trigger much debate among Muslims. A Muslim can perform salatul-gha'ib if he wants to do so, especially when its performance helps a Muslim share at least the emotional suffering to which his brothers and sisters are exposed to daily. Women can perform salatul-gha'ib along with the Muslim community, and there is nothing wrong if they perform it alone.
Clarifying the Islamic ruling concerning salatul-gha'ib, we would like to cite for you what the late Al-Azhar scholar Sheikh Sayyed Sabiq (may Allah rest his soul in peace), states regarding the issue in his well-known book Fiqh-us-Sunnah:
“Offering a funeral prayer for an absent person in another country or city is permissible and it makes no difference whether the city is near or far.
In such a case, those people offering funeral prayer should stand facing the qiblah, even if the city or the country where the absentee is located is not in the direction of the qiblah. After making an intention to pray for the absentee, takbirs (i.e. for the funeral prayer) should be said as they are normally said in funeral prayer over a deceased who is present. This is based on a hadith reported by the group on the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed people about the death of the Negus the day he died, and then took them out to offer funeral prayer for him. There he arranged his Companions in rows and said four takbirs.”
Ibn Hazm said: "The funeral prayer for an absentee may be performed by a group of people under an imam. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) offered a funeral prayer for the Negus, who had died in Ethiopia, with his Companions standing in rows behind him. There is a consensus among the Companions regarding this issue, and it should not be overlooked. Abu Hanifah and Malik, however, disagree with this view, but they have no ground for this disagreement.”
As to the issue of women performing salatul-gha'ib, Dr. Sano Koutoub Moustapha, Professor of Jurisprudence and Its Principles at the International Islamic University, Malaysia, states the following:
“Salatul-gha'ib is allowed by the majority of Muslim scholars. Both sexes can perform it in congregation or individually.
It is highly recommended that salatul-gha'ib be performed in congregation. However, a woman can perform salatul-gha'ib alone if she wishes to do so. Thus, there is nothing wrong if a woman performs salatul-gha'ib alone for her brothers and sisters in Iraq and Palestine at any time she can.”
You can also read:
Offering Janazah Prayer in Abstentia
Women Performing Funeral Prayer
If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to write back!
May Allah guide you to the straight path, and guide you to that which pleases Him, Amen.
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