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Fiqh-us-Sunnah - 4.56
Hadith 4.56.1
Actions to be Discouraged in a Funeral Procession
While accompanying a funeral procession, it is disliked to: Recite or raise one's voice or any similar activity.
Carrying torches of fire in a funeral procession.
Sitting down, when one is following a funeral before those carrying the coffin put it down.
Remain seated when a funeral procession passes by.
Permit women to accompany a funeral procession.
Hadith 4.56.A
Recite or raise one's voice or any similar activity
Sa'id ibn Al-Musaib, Sa'id ibn Jubair, Al-Hasan, An-Nakh'i, Ahmad, and Ishaq did not like it when anyone from the rear of the funeral procession exhorted others to pray for forgiveness of the deceased. Al-Awza'i said: This is a bid'a (innovation in religion). Fudhail ibn 'Amr said: "Once, while Ibn 'Umar was present at a funeral, he heard someone from behind saying: 'Pray for Allah's forgiveness for the deceased. May Allah forgive him.' Ibn 'Umar said: 'May Allah not forgive you'."
An-Nawawi said: "You should know that the right manner of accompanying a funeral procession is to remain quiet, as the pious among the previous generations of Muslims did.
One should not raise one's voice for recitation or for the remembrance of Allah, or for anything else. Keeping quiet is better and is helpful in concentrating one's attention on the funeral rites, which is needed at that time. This is the correct position, and the fact that a large number of people do otherwise does not change it.
There is a consensus among scholars that the way ignorant people recite in the funeral processions, artificially prolonging sounds of various words and mixing them up, is forbidden.
Mohammad 'Abduh issued a verdict concerning raising one ' s voice for the remembrance of Allah while following the funeral procession, in which he said: "In reference to the raising of one's voice in a funeral procession for remembrance of Allah, we find in Al-Fath, under the chapter on "Funerals," that it is disliked for a person walking in front of a funeral procession to make such remembrance loudly. If one wants to make any remembrance, one may do it in one's heart. Loud remembrance is something quite new, and there is no precedent for it from the days of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and his Companions, or from the generation following them or their Successors. Such a practice must be discouraged and stopped."
Hadith 4.56.B
Carrying torches or fire in a funeral procession
These are forbidden as they are vestiges of the Days of Ignorance. Ibn Al-Mundhir said: "This practice is disliked by all men of knowledge and scholars on record.
Al-Baihaqi said: 'Aishah, 'Ubadah ibn Al-Samit, Abu Hurairah, Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri, and Asma, the daughter of Abu Bakr, all stated in their respective wills that their funeral processions should not include anyone carrying fire (or torches). According to Ibn Majah, Abu Musa Al-Ash'ari, on his deathbed, directed his heirs, saying: "Do not follow my funeral procession carrying any censers (with fires in them to burn frankincense for its aromatic smoke and fragrance)." The people asked him: "Did you hear anything from the Prophet concerning this?" He said: "Yes, I heard the Prophet, peace be upon him, saying so.
(Among the narrators of this hadith is a man called Abu Huraiz, the freed slave of Mu'awiyah, who is "unknown" amongst the narrators of hadith) If the burial takes place at night, however, fire or torches may be used for light. Tirmidhi has reported on the authority of Ibn Abbas that once at night the Prophet, peace be upon him, entered a grave to bury a dead person, and a lantern was given to him and he took it." Tirmidhi said: This hadith from Ibn 'Abbas is sound.
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