Can a Muslim be buried at night?

In more detail

• Night burials in the Sunnah

  Al-Bukhārī titled a chapter “Burial at night”, noting that Abū Bakr was buried at night, and narrates that the Prophet ﷺ prayed at the grave of a man who had been buried the night before. Ibn Qudāmah adds that ʿAlī buried Fāṭimah at night.

  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1340 (chapter: burial at night, and Abū Bakr was buried at night) · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:414–415

• The rebuke

  Jābir: the Prophet ﷺ spoke of a Companion who was shrouded in a poor shroud and buried at night, and rebuked burying a man at night before he is prayed over, unless a person is compelled to.

  Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 943

• SchoolShāfiʿī

  Burial at night is not disliked, but burial by day is recommended. Al-Nawawī’s school says this is the view of all scholars except al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, who disliked it, and reads Jābir’s ḥadīth as forbidding burial before the funeral prayer.

  Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:302–303

• SchoolḤanbalī

  Aḥmad said there is no harm in it; another report has him following the ḥadīth of the rebuke. Ibn Qudāmah takes the rebuke as dislike and discipline, and says burial by day is better: easier for those who follow the funeral, more people to pray, and easier to follow the Sunnah in the burial.

  Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:414–415

• Sunrise, midday and sunset

  ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir: there were three times when the Prophet ﷺ forbade us to pray or bury our dead: as the sun rises, at midday, and as it sets. Al-Shāfiʿī: burial then is not disliked unless those times are sought out on purpose. Aḥmad disliked burial at those times.

  Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 831 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:302–303 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:414–415

• Ask the cemetery

  Whether a burial can happen after dark depends on the cemetery and the funeral home. The masjid’s funeral committee will know what is possible where you are.