It was narrated that Abu Umamah said, “The Sunnah when offering the funeral prayer is to recite Umm-al-Qur’an (i.e. Surah Al-Fatiha, Chapter No. 1) quietly in the first Takbir, then to say three (more) Takbirs, and to say the Taslim after the last one.” (Hadith No. 1991, Book of Funerals, Sunan An-Nasa’i, Vol. 3.). There is a difference of opinion among scholars about whether Surah Al-Fatiha is to be recited in funeral prayer or not. As per followers of Hanafi view, only ‘Thana’ (pronounced as ‘Sana’ by Urdu linguists) is to be recited after first Takbir. The wordings of ‘Thana’ are: Subhana kalla humma wabihamdika watabarakasmuka wata-a’la jadduka wa la ilaha ghairuka. The Hanafis recite this and proceed with second Takbir. Followers of Shafi’ and other views say that it is mandatory to recite Surah Al-Fatiha in funeral prayer. This view is substantiated by the hadith mentioned above. I will quote more narrations in support of this view: Talhah bin Abdullah bin Awf narrated: Ibn Abbas (RA) performed Salat for a funeral and he recited ‘Fatiha-til-Kitab’ (i.e. Surah Al-Fatiha). So I asked him about it and he said, “It is from the Sunnah, or, from completeness of Sunnah.” (Hadith No. 1027, Chapters on Janaiz, Jami’ At-Tirmidhi, Vol. 2; Hadith No. 1335, Book of Funerals, Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 2; Hadith No. 3198, Book of Funerals, Sunan Abu Dawud, Vol. 3; Hadith No. 1989, Book of Funerals, Sunan An-Nasa’i, Vol. 3; Hadith No. 1496, Chapters regarding Funerals, Sunan Ibn Majah, Vol. 2). We can see that almost every collection of ahadith reports the hadith authenticating recitation of Surah Al-Fatiha in funeral prayer. Therefore, there is absolutely no doubt that Surah Al-Fatiha should be recited after first Takbir in funeral prayer.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 17:45:50 +0000
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