relied upon the outward purport of this report, and his legal position regarding the prayer was that the hands are raised only with the first takbīr. He said, “The hands are to be raised with the first takbīr alone. Whoever maintains that they are to be raised at every takbīr has simply likened the second takbīr to the first, on the ground that the whole prayer is performed while one is standing upright.”

Issue Two: Qurʾānic Recitation in the Funeral Prayer

The scholars also disagreed over whether anything of the Qurʾān is to be recited in the funeral prayer. Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfah held that no recitation is prescribed; it is solely a prayer of supplication.

Mālik further said, “Reciting the Opening Chapter of the Book (Sūrat al-Fātiḥah) is not practiced here at all. Rather, after the first takbīr one praises and glorifies Allah; after the second one invokes blessings upon the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him; after the third one intercedes on behalf of the deceased; then, after the fourth, one gives the salām.”

Al-Shāfiʿī, by contrast, maintained that after the first takbīr one recites Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, and the same procedure is followed after each of the remaining takbīrs. This is likewise the position of Aḥmad and Dāwūd.

The root of their divergence is the apparent tension between established practice and transmitted reports, as well as the question of whether the very term “prayer” (ṣalāh) includes the funeral prayer. As for practice, Mālik relates what the people of his city actually do. As for textual evidence, al-Bukhārī reports from Ṭalḥah ibn ʿAbd-Allāh ibn ʿAwf, who said:

“I prayed behind Ibn ʿAbbās at a funeral, and he recited the Opening Chapter of the Book. Then he said, ‘I have done this so that you may know it is the Sunnah.’”

Hence, whoever preferred this report to prevalent practice—and regarded the name “prayer” as unquestionably covering the funeral prayer, given the Prophet’s statement, “There is no prayer without the Opening Chapter of the Book”—concluded that reciting al-Fātiḥah therein is required.

Mālik’s view, however, can be supported by the outward sense of numerous reports that mention the Prophet’s supplications over the deceased without recording any recitation. Taken together, these reports would seem to counter the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās and to particularize the Prophet’s dictum, “There is no prayer without the Opening Chapter.”

Al-Ṭaḥāwī relates from Ibn Shihāb that Abū Umāmah ibn Sahl ibn Ḥunayf—one of the leading and learned Companions, and the son of a participant at Badr—said that a man from the Companions of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—informed him:

“The Sunnah in the funeral prayer is that the imām utters a takbīr, then recites the Opening Chapter quietly to himself, and devotes the remaining three takbīrs entirely to supplication.”

Ibn Shihāb added, “I mentioned…”