of the bier will be both the discharge of a fellow Muslim’s right and a lesson for the escort.

The author—may Allah have mercy on him—then cited the two ḥadiths reported by Abū Hurayrah. Both state that whoever accompanies a funeral from the house of the deceased, prays over him, and remains until the burial will receive two qirats of reward. When the Prophet ﷺ was asked, “What are the two qirats?” he answered, “Like two enormous mountains.” In another wording preserved by Muslim he said, “The smaller of the two is the size of Mount Uḥud.”

When Ibn ʿUmar narrated this ḥadith he exclaimed, “We have squandered many qirats,” meaning that in the past they had seldom gone out with funeral processions and had thereby lost a great deal of reward. From that day on he never failed to follow a funeral—may Allah be pleased with him.

Thus, if you attend the funeral prayer you earn one qirat; if you stay until the burial you earn two. Al-Bukhārī’s version, however, stipulates that this be done “out of faith and seeking the reward,” that is, with belief in Allah, trust in His promise, and hope for His recompense—not merely to show courtesy to the family of the deceased. Social courtesy yields only an immediate, worldly benefit. A person may indeed be rewarded for kindness to his brethren, but the specific recompense of two qirats is reserved for the one who follows the funeral in faith and in hopeful anticipation of Allah’s reward, believing in Him and trusting His promise.

As for women, Umm ʿAṭiyyah—may Allah be pleased with her—said, “We were forbidden to follow funerals, though the prohibition was not made emphatic.” The phrase “we were forbidden,” when pronounced by a male or female Companion