his obligatory prayer, he may lead them, just as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, led two groups of his Companions in succession, praying once with each. Likewise, Mu‘ādh would pray and then lead his own people, the people of Qubā’, because he had the strongest claim to lead them.

Some have claimed that the hadith of Mu‘ādh was abrogated, but they have produced no sound evidence for this. Rulings established by the Quran and the Sunnah cannot be declared abrogated on grounds equally compatible with abrogation and its absence. This is a broad subject in which many people have fallen into such errors, as explained in detail elsewhere.

The same applies to the funeral prayer. If a man leads it and another group is then brought forward, he may lead the second group if he has the strongest claim to lead them. If someone else leads the funeral prayer a second time, he may join them in repeating it, just as he may repeat an obligatory prayer by joining a congregation. For example, he may pray at home and then come to a mosque with a regular imam and pray with them. This is prescribed in the school of Imam Ahmad, without disagreement within the school.

Likewise, according to his school, someone who has not offered the funeral prayer may offer it after others have done so, and may pray over the grave if he missed the funeral prayer. This is the position of all the jurists of the hadith tradition, such as al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, Ishāq and others. Mālik, however, does not permit repeating it, while Abū Hanīfah permits it only for the deceased’s guardian.

As for someone who has already offered the funeral prayer, after which others offer it: may he repeat it with the second group? There are two views within Ahmad’s school.

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