How do you pray the janazah prayer?

In more detail

• Stand in rows and make your intention

  Stand behind the imam facing the qiblah, with the body in front of him. Intend in your heart to pray the funeral prayer for this person.

  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1245

• Where the schools differ on al-Fātiḥah

  The Ḥanafī and Mālikī schools praise Allah after the first takbīr instead of reciting al-Fātiḥah. The Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī schools recite it, following Ibn ʿAbbās. Follow your imam.

  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1335

• The second and third takbīrs

  After the second, send blessings on the Prophet ﷺ, as in the sitting of every prayer. After the third, pray for the one who has died. This is the heart of the prayer; any sincere duʿāʾ fulfils it.

  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3370 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 963

• The fourth takbīr and the salām

  Pause briefly for a short duʿāʾ, then turn your head to the right and say as-salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatullāh. Many also turn to the left.

• If you do not know the Arabic, or arrive late

  Pray for them in your own words after the third takbīr. If you arrive late, join at the imam’s next takbīr and follow him.

• If they died far away

  The Prophet ﷺ led the funeral prayer in Madinah for al-Najāshī, who died far away. The Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī schools allow this prayer in absentia; the Ḥanafī school holds it is not valid, and the Mālikī school dislikes it.

  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1245 · 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)