Can women visit graves in Islam?

In more detail

• Why visit

  The Prophet ﷺ first forbade visiting graves, then said: visit them, for they remind you of death. He visited his mother’s grave and wept.

  Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 977a · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 976b · Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1054 (ṣaḥīḥ, Darussalam; al-Tirmidhī: ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ)

• SchoolḤanafī

  On the soundest view, the permission includes women. Al-Ramlī: not allowed if the visit is made to renew grief, weeping and wailing; if it is for reflection and mercy without weeping, no harm for older women, and disliked for young women.

  Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:242

• SchoolMālikī

  Three views: forbidden; allowed with proper covering; allowed for older women and not for young women where harm is feared.

  Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:422

• SchoolShāfiʿī

  Mildly disliked, in the view of most of the school. Al-Rūyānī held that it is not disliked.

  Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:310–311

• SchoolḤanbalī

  Two narrations from Aḥmad: disliked, and not disliked.

  Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī), 2:421–422 and 2:424–425

• The ḥadīth about women

  A ḥadīth says the Prophet ﷺ cursed women who visit graves often. Al-Tirmidhī reports that some scholars held this was before the permission, which then included men and women, and others held that it is disliked for women.

  Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1056 (ḥasan, Darussalam; al-Tirmidhī: ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ)

• What to say there

  Peace be upon you, people of these dwellings, believers and Muslims; we shall, if Allah wills, join you. I ask Allah for well-being for us and for you. Then pray for them, and do not sit on the graves.

  Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 975 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 972a