Can you pray the janazah for someone who died far away?

In more detail

• The prayer for al-Najāshī

  The Prophet ﷺ led the funeral prayer for al-Najāshī, who had died far away, with the people in rows behind him, and said four takbīrs.

  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1245

• How it is prayed

  Like any janazah prayer, with no body in front of you: face the qiblah, intend in your heart to pray for this person, and say the four takbīrs. It does not matter whether the place where they died lies in the direction of the qiblah or not.

  How to pray the janazah prayer

  Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:382–383 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:252–253

• SchoolShāfiʿī

  The prayer is allowed for someone who died in another town, near or far. If the person died in your own town, the school holds that it is not prayed until you are present where the body is. Al-Nawawī calls the ḥadīth of al-Najāshī sound, with no flaw in it.

  Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:252–253

• SchoolḤanbalī

  Allowed for someone who died in another town, prayed with intention and facing the qiblah. Ibn Qudāmah limits it to about a month after the death, as with the prayer at a grave. He also reports a second narration from Aḥmad that agrees with Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfah.

  Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:382–383

• SchoolḤanafī and Mālikī

  The Ḥanafī text says the funeral prayer over someone who is absent is not valid; the Mālikī text calls it disliked. Both explain the prayer over al-Najāshī as particular to the Prophet ﷺ, and the Ḥanafī text also as a duʿāʾ. Dār al-Iftāʾ al-Miṣriyyah, quoting al-Shawkānī, reports that al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad and most of the early generations allowed it, and itself permits it at any time, in congregation or alone. The schools differ, so ask your imam.

  Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:209 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:427 · Dār al-Iftāʾ al-Miṣriyyah, fatwā 4248: the funeral prayer in absentia (2004)

• If your masjid does not hold it

  You can still pray for them, at any time and in any language. The Prophet ﷺ said that when a Muslim prays for his brother in his absence, the angel says: and for you the same.

  Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2732a (narrator Abū al-Dardāʾ in the Arabic chain)