all the stronger. This differs from cases in which women can offer the funeral prayer without following the procession, as when they pray over the deceased at home. That is comparable to supplicating for him and seeking forgiveness for him at home.

If it is said, “The harm involved in following funeral processions is greater than that involved in visiting graves, because the bereavement is recent, and the women’s voices and appearance cause distress to the deceased and temptation for the living,” the response is:

Accompanying a funeral procession as such outweighs the benefit of visiting graves, because it includes praying over the deceased, which is greater than merely supplicating for him. Moreover, its purpose—carrying and burying the deceased and offering the funeral prayer—is a communal obligation, whereas no aspect of visiting graves is a communal obligation. This obligation is shared by men and women: if a man dies with none but women present, carrying him, burying him and offering the funeral prayer over him become obligatory upon them. As for women washing deceased men, there is disagreement and the ruling requires further distinctions. Likewise, whether dry purification should be performed for a deceased person whose body cannot be washed is a well-known matter of disagreement, with two positions in the school of Ahmad and elsewhere. Thus, if women are forbidden to participate when men undertake these duties, even though such acts are communal obligations and yield greater benefit, then this applies all the more to something that is obligatory upon no one.

The claim that accompanying a funeral procession involves greater harm is not conceded. Rather, allowing a woman to visit graves is likely to lead her to do so repeatedly, thereby increasing the harm and renewing anguished grief and distress to the deceased. It would also be likely to lead men to seek the women out and become infatuated with them, as actually happens in many towns. For there arise, as a result of