outside the mosque while the worshippers were inside, and that, they said, is unanimously allowed. This contention was answered by pointing out that ʿĀʾishah herself cited the ḥadīth when some people objected to her order to bring the bier into the mosque. They further replied that practice eventually settled on abandoning the custom, since those who criticised ʿĀʾishah were Companions. The rejoinder is that, when ʿĀʾishah met their objection, they conceded to her, which shows that she had preserved knowledge they had forgotten and that the final ruling is permissibility. Supporting this are the funeral prayers performed for Abū Bakr and ʿUmar inside the mosque, as mentioned earlier.

Moreover, the rationale for which they disliked offering the funeral prayer in the mosque is their claim that the corpse is impure—an argument already invalidated, for a believer is not impure, whether alive or dead.

The strongest proof they produce for deeming it disliked is the report transmitted by Abū Dāwūd from Abū Hurayrah: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever performs the funeral prayer in the mosque, he has nothing.” Ibn Mājah also recorded it with the wording, “…then he has nothing.” In its chain stands Ṣāliḥ, the freedman of al-Tuʾamah, and more than one leading ḥadith critic has spoken against him.

Al-Nawawī said: The majority answered this report in several ways.

1. It is weak and unfit for legal proof. Aḥmad said, “This ḥadith is weak; it is uniquely narrated by Ṣāliḥ, the freedman of al-Tuʾamah, and he is weak.”

2. In the well-known, verified, and auditioned manuscripts of Sunan Abī Dāwūd the wording reads, “Whoever prays over a funeral in the mosque, there is no blame upon him,” leaving them with no evidence at all.

3. Even if the wording “he has nothing” were established, it would have to be interpreted so that “for him” means “against him,” in order to reconcile the two variants. The phrase does occur with that meaning, as in Allah’s statement, “and if you do evil, it is against yourselves” (Q 17:7).