One day you will be at the masjid for an ordinary prayer, and afterwards someone will announce that there is a janazah. Everyone will stand up in rows facing a covered body at the front, and they will pray standing — no bowing, no prostration — and then it will be over in three minutes.
If nobody has told you what that was, it is bewildering. Here is what it is.
What it is
The funeral prayer. A short supplication for a Muslim who has died, prayed in congregation over the body before burial.
It is farḍ kifāyah — a communal obligation. If enough of the community pray it, the obligation is lifted from everyone. If nobody does, the whole community has sinned. So when it is announced, joining is a genuine good and not a formality.
Whoever attends the funeral prayer has one qīrāṭ of reward, and whoever follows it until the burial has two — each qīrāṭ being like a great mountain.
Reported by Abū Hurayrah in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim.
You do not need to have known the person. Nobody will ask. Stand in the row.
How it is different
- Everything is done standing. No bowing, no prostration, no sitting.
- Four takbīrs mark the four parts. The imam says each one aloud; you follow.
- No adhan and no iqamah. People simply form rows.
- It takes about three minutes.
Where the body is, and what you will see
In Canada the deceased is in a plain casket, with the body inside wrapped in white cloth. The casket is simple and undecorated, and it is a container for carrying — it holds the body from the funeral home to the masjid to the graveside, and no further. It is not what the person is buried in.
For the prayer, the casket is placed at the front of the brothers' side, before the imam. It is closed. Sisters pray the janazah from the women's area as they would any other prayer, behind and apart, and do not see it.
When the deceased is a sister
Practice varies between masjids, but commonly the casket is first brought into the women's prayer area and opened, so that the sisters can see her face, say their farewells and make duʿā' for her.
It is then closed and carried through to the brothers' side for the salah.
So if a sister has died, you may find yourself standing before an open casket without warning. It is quiet, it is brief, and nobody expects anything of you but a duʿā'. If you would rather not look, you do not have to — step back and make duʿā' from where you are.
The casket is never open during the salah itself. Whatever viewing happens, happens before.
Ask your masjid how they do it. The arrangement above is common but not universal — some masjids do not open the casket at all, and some hold the prayer entirely outside. Worth knowing before the day rather than working it out in the moment.
What to do, takbīr by takbīr
You need wudu, and you face the qiblah with the body in front of the imam.
- First takbīr — raise your hands, then fold them. Recite Al-Fatihah, quietly.
- Second takbīr — send blessings on the Prophet ﷺ, the same words you say in the tashahhud of every prayer.
- Third takbīr — make duʿā' for the person who has died.
- Fourth takbīr — pause briefly, then turn your head to the right and give the salām.
اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لَهُ وَارْحَمْهُ، وَعَافِهِ وَاعْفُ عَنْهُ، وَأَكْرِمْ نُزُلَهُ، وَوَسِّعْ مُدْخَلَهُ
Allāhumma-ghfir lahu wa-rḥamh, wa ʿāfihi wa-ʿfu ʿanh, wa akrim nuzulah, wa wassiʿ mudkhalah
O Allah, forgive him and have mercy on him, grant him wellbeing and pardon him, honour his arrival and make spacious his entry.
If you do not know it yet. Say whatever you can in your own language — "O Allah, forgive him and have mercy on him" is enough. Nobody will hear you, and an honest sentence you mean is better than silence while you panic about Arabic. Learn the Arabic afterwards.
◇ Scholars differ
Al-Fatihah after the first takbīr. Most schools recite it; the Hanafi school recites a supplication of praise instead. Follow your masjid.
The salām. Some give it to the right only, some to both sides.
Where the imam stands relative to the body differs depending on whether the deceased is a man or a woman, and the schools differ on this. It is the imam's concern, not yours.
Women following to the graveyard is a point of genuine difference. Praying the janazah at the masjid is not.
When you hear that someone has died
إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
Innā lillāhi wa innā ilayhi rājiʿūn
Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we return.
You will hear this constantly — at a death, at any calamity, at bad news. It is worth learning early. Six words, and it says the whole thing.
What happens around it
Islamic burial is fast — usually within a day or two, as quickly as the law and the paperwork allow. There is no embalming where it can be avoided, and no public viewing.
The sequence is: the body is washed, wrapped in plain white cloth, carried in a casket to the masjid, prayed over, and taken to the cemetery.
At the graveside the body is lifted out of the casket and lowered into the earth in the shroud alone, laid on its right side facing the qiblah. The casket goes back; it was only ever transport. Those present then place earth into the grave by hand, three handfuls each.
The grave is raised only slightly and marked simply.
All of this can be a shock if you come from a tradition of week-long arrangements, funeral homes, polished caskets and open viewings. It is not coldness. Speed is considered a kindness to the deceased, and the plainness is deliberate: the same white cloth for everyone, the same earth, and no way to tell from a grave who had money.
Afterwards, the family receives visitors for three days. Bringing food to a bereaved family is a sunnah — they should not have to cook.
If your own relative dies and they are not Muslim
Everything on this page describes the funeral of a Muslim. A non-Muslim is not given the washing, the shroud or the janazah prayer, and is buried according to their own family's tradition. That is not a slight; those rites belong to a particular faith and they are not performed over someone who did not hold it.
What reverts actually need to know is different, and it comes up in three questions:
- May I attend the funeral? Generally yes, and for a parent especially. Where scholars differ is over taking part in the religious portions of a service rather than being present at it.
- May I help — arrangements, costs, being there for the family? Yes. Kindness to parents and relatives does not stop at their death, and stepping back from your family at that moment would be the greater wrong.
- May I ask Allah to forgive them? This one has a considered answer in the tradition, and it is hard to hear. It should be given to you by a person sitting beside you who can place it properly — not read off a website in the middle of the night.
Ask your imam, and ask before you need to. If your parents are elderly, that conversation is worth having on an ordinary Tuesday rather than on the worst day of your life.
One thing worth carrying in the meantime. The Prophet ﷺ was permitted to visit his mother's grave, and he wept when he stood there.
Grief, love, visiting, remembering, speaking well of them, honouring what they gave you — none of that is taken from you. Whatever the answer to the third question turns out to be, it is narrow and specific, and it is not a ruling on whether you are allowed to love your parents.