What Is the Ruling of Giving Sermon Beside the Grave During the Burial of A Muslim?

Wednesday 23-Oct-2019, 12:03AM / 1011

Translation: Ishaaq bn AbdirRaheem Aboo Aamir 

Question: What is your view as regard what has become apparent in these days in terms of sermons beside the graves, when a dead person is being buried?

Answer: What I see with regard to giving sermon beside the graves is that it is not permissible. It is not proper to take this as a normal practice. If there is a reason for it, perhaps it may be permissible like if there are many people at the gravesite laughing while they are burying a dead person, or playing and making jest between themselves. In this context, a very good sermon will do because a reason has called for it. However, to make it a practice whereby a person will rise and begin to give sermon to people while they are burying a dead person, there is no basis for such in the guidance of the Prophet (sallallâhu ’alayhi wa sallam); it is not proper that that is done.

Yes taken that the Prophet (sallallâhu ’alayhi wa sallam) once went to the burial of an Ansaari man, and when his grave was dug, he sat and his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) sat as if birds were on their head out of the attentiveness and importance that they attached to the talk. The Prophet (sallallâhu ’alayhi wa sallam) held a stick with which he was making some movements in the sand; he was talking to them about the state of the man before his death and after.

What is clear in that is that he was not giving his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) a formal sermon rather he was sitting down and his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) were waiting for the corpse to be buried so he began to talk to them. Therefore if in this manner you and your comrades are waiting for a dead person to be buried and you begin to talk to them about this; that is the difference between a normal discussion that takes place between those who are sitting, and what is done in form of a formal talk.

So also whenever the Prophet (sallallâhu ’alayhi wa sallam) buried a dead person, he would stand by his grave and say: ‘Ask forgiveness and steadfastness for your brother because he is being questioned now.’  This is also a specific matter not a formal sermon.

So also was his standing (sallallâhu ’alayhi wa sallam) by the grave of one of his Companions, whereby he was talking to the people and his eyes were shedding tears; he was saying: ‘There is none among you except that his place has been written in the Jannah or Hell.’ This hadith or what comes in its meaning, all of them do not indicate the permissibility of giving sermon where a person is being buried, whereby such is considered as a custom that must be observed always. We ought to be careful with regard to issues like these.

(Duruus Wa Fatawa Fee Al-Haram Al-Makiyy, p. 320), Fatwa rendered by Shaykh Ibn Al-Uthaymeen (may Allah bestow His mercy on him).