Can women attend the janazah?

In more detail

• The prayer

  Women may pray the janazah prayer, and it is valid in all four schools. When men are present, women pray behind the imam, and in the Shāfiʿī school it is the men’s prayer that fulfils the communal duty. The wives of the Prophet ﷺ had the bier of Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ brought through the masjid so they could pray over him.

  Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 973b · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:213 and 5:215

• If only women are present

  The prayer is then theirs to pray, and it counts. The Ḥanafī and Ḥanbalī books have them pray together, the woman leading standing in the middle of the row; the Mālikī book has each pray on her own at the same time; al-Shāfiʿī preferred individually and allowed a congregation.

  Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 1:565–566 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr (Mālikī), 1:428 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:213 and 5:215 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 2:361 · Al-Buhūtī, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ (Ḥanbalī), 2:125–126

• Following the funeral to the grave

  Umm ʿAṭiyyah said: “We were forbidden to follow funerals, but it was not made binding on us.” The Ḥanafī school holds it disliked to the point of prohibition; the Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī books call it disliked.

  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1278 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 938 · Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:232 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:277–278 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 2:356 · Al-Buhūtī, Kashshāf al-Qināʿ (Ḥanbalī), 2:129

• The Mālikī view

  The Mālikī books allow an older woman to follow any funeral, and a younger woman, where no fitnah is feared, to follow the funeral of a parent, husband, child, brother or sister. Women walk behind.

  Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:421 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr (Mālikī), 1:418