Can a Muslim attend a non-Muslim relative’s funeral?

In more detail

• ʿAlī and his father

  ʿAlī told the Prophet ﷺ that his uncle, Abū Ṭālib, had died. He said: go and bury your father, then do nothing until you come to me. Al-Albānī graded the report ṣaḥīḥ; al-Nawawī called its chain weak.

  Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3214 (ṣaḥīḥ, al-Albānī; al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ 5:281: “its chain is weak”) · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:144 and 5:281

• SchoolShāfiʿī

  Al-Shāfiʿī and his school: a Muslim may follow the funeral of a non-Muslim relative, and it is not disliked. If the person’s non-Muslim relatives do not take charge, a Muslim relative may wash, shroud and bury them. Visiting their grave is allowed.

  Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:144 and 5:281

• SchoolḤanbalī

  Muslims do not wash or bury a non-Muslim, relative or not, unless no one else will bury them; a second view reported from Aḥmad allows a Muslim to wash and bury a non-Muslim relative. Of a Jew or Christian with a Muslim child, Aḥmad said: let him go ahead of the funeral, and when they come to bury, turn back.

  Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:393

• SchoolḤanafī and Mālikī

  Ḥanafī: a Muslim washes, shrouds and buries a non-Muslim relative when there is a need; if the person has relatives of their own faith, it is better left to them. Mālikī: a Muslim does not wash a non-Muslim parent or lower them into the grave, unless they would otherwise be left unburied; then he must bury them. The same holds for other relatives.

  Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār, with al-Durr al-Mukhtār (Ḥanafī), 2:230 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:430

• What is not allowed

  Praying the funeral prayer for a non-Muslim and asking forgiveness for them are forbidden by the Qurʾān and by consensus, al-Nawawī says. The Prophet ﷺ was not given permission to seek forgiveness for his mother, but was given permission to visit her grave.

  Qurʾān, al-Tawbah 9:113 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:144 and 5:281 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 976b

• Keep the ties

  Allah does not forbid you from being good and just to those who do not fight you because of religion. When Asmāʾ’s mother, who was not Muslim, came to her, the Prophet ﷺ told her: keep good relations with your mother.

  Qurʾān, al-Mumtaḥinah 60:8 · Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2620