Abū Barzah al-Aslamī said: “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, did not offer the funeral prayer for him, nor did he forbid others from doing so.” Abū Dāwūd related this (1).
I say: The narrations concerning the Ghāmidī woman do not differ as to his having offered the funeral prayer for her (2). As for the report concerning Mā‘iz, one may say that its various wordings do not conflict: the prayer mentioned in it refers to his supplication (3) that Allah forgive him, while his not praying refers to his refraining from offering the funeral prayer for him as a disciplinary measure and a warning. Alternatively, one may say that, if its wordings conflict, this report should be set aside in favor of the report concerning the Ghāmidī woman.
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Whenever he offered the funeral prayer for someone, he would accompany the bier to the cemetery on foot, walking ahead of it. This was also the practice of his Rightly Guided Caliphs after him (4).
(1) No. 3186; also recorded by Ibn Shāhīn in Nāsikh al-hadīth wa-mansūkhuhu (p. 310). Its chain of transmission includes an unnamed narrator.
(2) Recorded by Muslim (1695/23).
(3) Sād reads: “al-du‘ā’ (supplication).”
(4) Recorded by Ahmad (4539, 4939, 6042), Abū Dāwūd (3179), al-Tirmidhī (1007, 1008), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (1944, 1945) and al-Kubrā (2081–2083), Ibn Mājah (1482), and Ibn Hibbān (3045–3047), through various chains from al-Zuhrī, from Sālim, from his father, ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Umar. There is disagreement over whether its chain is connected. Mālik (600), al-Tirmidhī (1009), and al-Tahāwī in Ma‘ānī al-āthār (1:379) recorded it through various chains from al-Zuhrī concerning the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and his two Companions, as a mursal report (with an incomplete chain). This is the version that Ahmad, al-Bukhārī, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasā’ī, and al-Dāraqutnī judged correct. See Masā’il Ahmad, transmitted by ‘Abd Allāh (pp. 142–143); al-Tirmidhī’s al-‘Ilal al-kabīr (p. 153); al-Dāraqutnī’s al-‘Ilal (2716); and the author’s Tahdhīb al-sunan (2:367–369).
Some transmitted it from al-Zuhrī, from Anas, as recorded by al-Tirmidhī (1010), Ibn Mājah (1483), and al-Bazzār (13:17). This is an error, as stated by al-Bukhārī (as quoted by al-Tirmidhī) and al-Dāraqutnī in al-‘Ilal (2588, 2617).