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Questions families ask

Short answers first, then the detail and the evidence. Each one links to the guides, which go further.

Someone has died

• How soon after death is a Muslim funeral?As soon as possible. The Prophet ﷺ told us to hurry with the funeral, so families arrange the washing, the prayer and the burial as quickly as the paperwork allows.
• How do I find a Muslim funeral home near me?Call your masjid’s funeral committee first.
• What do you do when a Muslim dies abroad?Call the embassy or consulate of the country whose passport they held, and their travel insurer if they had one.
• What do you say when a Muslim dies?Say innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn: “we belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.”
• What do you do when a Muslim is dying?Stay close, be gentle, and help them think well of Allah.
• What do you do when a Muslim dies at home?If the person was in hospice, call the hospice: a hospice nurse can pronounce the death, and a plan for what happens next is usually already in place.
• How do I get the body released quickly for a Muslim burial?Tell the hospital or hospice staff early, before death if you can, that the family needs a quick release for a religious burial, and call the masjid’s funeral committee.
• Who gets the death certificate and the burial permit?In the US the funeral home usually does both: the funeral director completes and files the death certificate and obtains the burial permit your state requires.
• How do you move a body to another state for burial?A funeral home arranges it: in most states the funeral director needs a permit, such as a burial-transit permit, before the body leaves the state.
• How much does a Muslim funeral cost?For many families the largest cost of a Muslim funeral is the grave: the plot, and the fee to open and close it.
• Who pays for a Muslim funeral if the family has no money?The funeral is paid from the estate first, before debts and before anything is inherited; if the estate cannot cover it, family and the community step in.

The washing, the prayer and the burial

• What happens at a Muslim funeral?A Muslim funeral is short and simple. The body is washed and shrouded in private, then the janazah prayer is prayed, standing in rows behind the imam with no bowing and no prostration.
• What is the ghusl after death?The ghusl is the washing of the body after death, the last service a family gives the one who has died.
• Can a husband wash his wife’s body after she dies?In three of the four schools, yes. The Mālikī, Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī schools allow a husband to wash his wife, and the Prophet ﷺ told ʿĀʾishah that if she died before him he would wash her; the Ḥanafī school does not allow it, though he may see her.
• How do you pray the janazah prayer?The janazah prayer is prayed standing behind the imam, with no bowing and no prostration.
• Can you pray the janazah for someone who died far away?In the Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī schools, yes.
• I missed the janazah. Can I pray it at the grave?In the Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī schools, yes: the Prophet ﷺ prayed at the grave of a woman who used to sweep the masjid, after she had been buried without him being told.
• Is there a janazah for a Muslim who died by suicide?Yes. A Muslim who took their own life is still a Muslim: they are washed, shrouded, prayed over and buried with the Muslims, as the four schools hold.
• Can women attend the janazah?Women may pray the janazah prayer, and it is valid in all four schools; with men present, they pray behind the imam.
• Can non-Muslims attend a Muslim funeral?Yes. Non-Muslim relatives, friends, neighbours and colleagues may come to show their respect, and scholars in North America and the UK say there is no prohibition.
• Can a Muslim attend a non-Muslim relative’s funeral?The Shāfiʿī books say a Muslim may follow the funeral of a non-Muslim relative, and Aḥmad told a Muslim child to go ahead of a Jewish or Christian parent’s funeral and turn back at the burial.
• Do Muslims embalm or cremate?Muslims bury their dead, so a Muslim funeral has no cremation.
• Can a Muslim be buried without a casket or a vault?Often, yes, but it depends on the cemetery: no state law requires a vault or grave liner, though many cemeteries do.
• Can a Muslim be buried in a coffin?All four schools prefer burial without a coffin, and the Ḥanafī and Shāfiʿī schools allow one when there is a need, such as soft or wet ground.
• How is a Muslim laid in the grave?The body is laid on its right side, facing the qiblah, ideally in a niche (laḥd) cut into the qiblah side of the grave, or in a trench (shaqq) where the ground is soft.
• What do you do at the grave after a Muslim burial?Stay a little and pray for them. When the Prophet ﷺ finished burying someone, he would stand at the grave and say: ask forgiveness for your brother and ask that he be kept firm, for he is now being questioned.
• Can a Muslim be buried at night?Yes: Abū Bakr was buried at night, and the Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī books allow it, though they say burial by day is better.
• Can a Muslim be buried at sea?Only when someone dies at sea and land cannot be reached before the body changes.
• Can a Muslim grave have a headstone?A simple marker, yes: the Prophet ﷺ placed a stone at the head of ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn’s grave so that he could recognise it.
• Can a Muslim be buried in a non-Muslim cemetery?Families usually bury in a Muslim cemetery, or a Muslim section of a public one, because the schools keep Muslim graves apart.
• Can a Muslim grave be moved, or the body exhumed?Not without a real reason: the schools do not allow opening a grave for no reason, and allow it for some needs, such as land taken without right or something valuable left inside.

Grief and visiting

• What do I say to a grieving Muslim family?Keep it short and sincere: “May Allah forgive him and have mercy on him,” or “May Allah give you patience and reward you.”
• Is it allowed to cry when someone dies in Islam?Yes. The Prophet ﷺ wept when his son Ibrāhīm was dying, and said: the eyes shed tears and the heart grieves, and we say only what pleases our Lord.
• How long do Muslims mourn?Three days, for most people. A woman keeps the prescribed mourning for no more than three days for any death, except for her husband: then four months and ten days, the length of her ʿiddah, or until she gives birth if she is pregnant.
• Can a widow leave the house during her ʿiddah?Yes, for her needs by day. All four schools let a widow go out in the daytime for her needs, and she comes home to sleep until her ʿiddah ends: four months and ten days, or at childbirth if she is pregnant.
• Can women visit graves in Islam?Visiting graves is recommended for men, and the four schools differ on women.
• What do you say when you visit a Muslim grave?Greet them with the words the Prophet ﷺ taught: “Peace be upon you, people of these dwellings, believers and Muslims; we shall, if Allah wills, join you.
• Can you read the Qurʾān for someone who has died?Scholars differ on whether the reward of reciting the Qurʾān reaches the dead.
• Can I give sadaqah on behalf of someone who has died?Yes. Charity given on behalf of a Muslim who has died reaches them and benefits them, and the four schools agree on it.

The estate and planning ahead

• Who inherits in Islam?After the funeral costs, the debts and any bequest of up to a third to people who are not heirs, the rest of the estate goes to the heirs by the fixed shares of Sūrat al-Nisāʾ.
• Can a non-Muslim inherit from a Muslim?Not by the Qurʾānic shares: a Muslim does not inherit from a non-Muslim, nor a non-Muslim from a Muslim.
• Can I write an Islamic will in the US?Yes. An Islamic will is a will made under your state’s law that directs your estate by the Qurʾānic shares, with any bequest kept to a third and none to an heir.
• Is organ donation allowed in Islam?Scholars differ. The International Islamic Fiqh Academy permitted organ donation under conditions, including the donor’s consent and no sale of organs; other scholars do not permit it.
• Who decides the funeral if a Muslim’s family is not Muslim?In most places the law, not faith, decides who arranges the funeral, and if nothing is in writing it is usually the closest relative.

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