The point of contention turns on two ḥadīths: one from ʿĀʾishah and one from Abū Hurayrah.
As for ʿĀʾishah’s report, Mālik relates that when Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ died she ordered that his bier be carried through the mosque so she could supplicate for him. The people objected, and she replied, “How quickly people forget! The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—did not pray over Sahl ibn Bayḍāʾ except inside the mosque.”
Abū Hurayrah’s report states that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said, “Whoever performs the funeral prayer in the mosque shall have no reward.”
The narration of ʿĀʾishah is sound, whereas the report of Abū Hurayrah is not firmly established—or at least its authenticity is disputed. Still, the Companions’ objection to ʿĀʾishah shows that, in their estimation, common practice differed from what she did, and this is supported by the Prophet’s—peace be upon him—going out to the prayer ground to offer the funeral prayer for the Negus.
Some have claimed the prohibition rests on the notion that the corpse of a human being is carrion; this is a weak argument, for the legal ruling of “carrion” can only be applied to the human body with explicit evidence.
Likewise, certain scholars disliked performing the funeral prayer in graveyards because of the prophetic prohibition of praying there, while most permitted it on the strength of his—peace and blessings be upon him—statement, “The earth has been made for me a place of prayer and a means of purification.”
Section Five: Conditions for the Funeral Prayer
The majority agree that ritual purity is a condition for this prayer, and all agree that facing the qiblah is likewise required.
They disagreed, however, about whether tayammum is permissible if one fears that the prayer will be missed. Some—among them Abū Ḥanīfah, Sufyān, al-Awzāʿī, and others—allow tayammum in that case, after which the prayer is offered. Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad do not permit the funeral prayer to be performed with tayammum.
The root of their disagreement is whether the funeral prayer should be analogized to the obligatory prayers: whoever draws that analogy—equating the lapse of its time with the lapse of the time of an obligatory prayer—allows tayammum; whoever does not, forbids it, maintaining that the funeral prayer is a communal obligation, or even a communal Sunnah, according to their differing classifications.
A fringe view, attributed to al-Shaʿbī, holds that the funeral prayer may be performed without any purification at all. Those who said this assumed that the term ṣalāh does not cover the funeral prayer, which they considered merely supplication, since it contains neither bowing nor prostration.