The salat of janaza is fard-i kifaya for men who hear (of the death), and, if there are no men, for women. It is not makruh for one woman to perform it alone or for more than one women to form a jamaat (and perform it in jamaat). A person who slights (the janaza salat) becomes a kafir (unbeliever). There are six conditions to be fulfilled for the salat (of janaza) to be acceptable:

1 - The dead person must be a Muslim.

2 - The corpse must have been washed. If it has been interred before having been washed but has not been covered up with earth yet, it is taken out and washed and then the salat is performed. The place where the corpse and the imam are must be clean. It is not a condition for the jamaat's place to be clean. For, the fard will have been carried out by only the imam's performing the salat. If the clothes, the shoes and the place stood on are najs (foul) the salat will not be sahih. Tahtawi 'rahmatullahi ta'ala 'alaih' states in his explanation entitled Imdad: "If the corpse is in a clean coffin and if you take off your shoes the upper parts of which are clean and stand on them, the ground's being najs does not give any harm." If a woman or jariya conducts the salat as the imam the fard will have been carried out. For, though the salat of the men who follow the woman will not be accepted, the woman's salat of janaza will be accepted and the fard will have been carried out by one person performing the salat. It is permissible for a child to wash the corpse, but it is not permissible for it to conduct the salat of janaza.

3 - The corpse or half of the corpse and its head or more than half of it without its head must be ahead of the imam.

4 - The corpse must be on the ground or close to the ground, held with hands or placed on a stone (bench). If the corpse is at some other place or on a beast or raised on hands, the salat of janaza will not be accepted. The corpse's head must be to the imam's right and its feet must be to his left. It is sinful to place it the other way round.

5 - The corpse must be ready and in front of the imam.

6 - The awrat parts of the corpse and of the imam must be covered.

The salat of janaza has two faraid (fards):

1 - To make the takbir (to say Allahu Akbar) four times.

2 - To perform it standing. It is not permissible to perform it sitting or on a beast without any 'udhr (excuse, imperfection, inability to perform an act in the prescribed manner). It is permissible if you cannot get down from your beast because of rain or mud.

The salat of janaza has three sunnats:

1 - To say the Subhanaka.

2 - To say the Salawat. For, it is the sunnat of prayers to say the Salawat before prayers.

3 - To say the ones you know of the prayers that have been prescribed for (entreating Allah for) mercy and forgiveness for yourself, for the dead person, and for all Muslims.

The salat of janaza is not performed for four kinds of Muslims:

1 - For baghis, that is, for rebels; that is, if those who revolt unjustly against the Khalifa are killed while fighting, their salat is not performed. Nor is it necessary to wash them.

2- When bandits who waylay Muslims are killed in a fight, they are not washed and their salat is not performed.

If the baghis and the bandits escape and then are killed during such chastisements as hadd and qisas, they are washed and their salat is performed.

3 - If clans notorious for their cruelty are killed in a fight their salat is not performed.

4 - If an armed person raiding a house is killed in the act, his salat is not performed.

A suicide, that is, a person who has killed himself, is washed and his salat is performed even if he died immediately. It is written in Hindiyya that suicide is more sinful than killing someone else.

When a person who has killed his mother or father is killed by qisas (taliation) his salat is not performed.

Each of the four takbirs of the salat of janaza is like a rakat. The hands are lifted up to the ears only with the first takbir. They are not lifted with the next three takbirs. After both hands are fastened, the Subhanaka is recited, and the words, "Wa jalla thanauka" are added in the recitation. The Surat-al Fatiha is not recited. After the second takbir the Salawat is recited exactly as it is recited during the tashahhud (sitting posture in the daily prayers of salat). After the third takbir the du'a of janaza is recited. Presently after the fourth takbir the salam is performed (by turning the head) first to the right and then to the left. [So far we have not been able to find any information in books concerning when the hands should be let to hang down. It is written in the marginal notes of the books Durar and Halabi-i- saghir: "Hands are tied while doing the (prescribed) recitals during the standing posture. If there is no recital the hands are let to hang down. First the hands are let to hang down, and then the salam is made to both sides." We saw our superiors hang down their right hands as they made the salam to the right and their left hands while making the salam to the left. (According to the quotation borrowed from the above named books), it is equally inferable that both hands are let down before the salam is made.] While performing the salam, an intention for the dead person and the jamaat must be made. The imam says only the four takbirs and the salam to both shoulders aloud; he does the other recitations silently. [The du'a of janaza is a certain prayer, instead of which "Rabbana atina fi-d-dunya..." is recited or one may only say, "Allahummaghfir leh," or the Surat-al Fatiha without the Basmala may be recited with the intention of saying a prayer. Saying prayers brings forgiveness to the dead person. And it brings promotion to Prophets ('alaihimussalam) and children. If forty or a hundred people make a jamaat in three lines, this brings forgiveness to the dead person. The salat is performed before interment]. With the salat of janaza, there is more thawab in (standing in) the hindmost line.

If the imam says a fifth takbir instead of performing the salam with the fourth takbir, the jamaat must not say it too. Waiting silently, they must perform the salam together with the imam.

The imam stands exactly opposite the corpse's chest. A person who is late for the beginning of the salat does not begin as soon as he comes. He waits and then begins by saying the takbir as the imam says one of the takbirs; he intends this takbir to be his Takbir iftitah (beginning); and after the imam recites the salam, he says the takbirs he has missed one right after the other, and then makes the salam without reciting anything. He who misses the fourth takbir has missed the salat.

If there are several corpses at the same time, it is very good to perform salat for each of them separately. It is permissible as well to perform one salat for all of them. For doing this, the corpses must be arranged in such an order that each corpse will be put on the left hand side and its head will be in line with the feet of the other. The imam performs the salat standing opposite the one with the highest rank. Thus some of the corpses are to the right of the imam and others are to his left. Or, all the corpses being arranged side by side in front of the imam, the imam stands opposite the chests of all of them. Men's corpses have precedence and are placed first, then come boys', women's, girls' corpses, respectively. [While making the niyya (intention) for them, it is not necessary to say that they are men or women].

The salat of janaza is conducted by the head of the State. In his absence it is conducted by the head of the government; next comes the governor, and then come, respectively, the judge, the governor of the town, the vice-governor of the town, the assistant judge, and the imam of the quarter. If the wali (guardian) of the dead person is salih (pious, devoted Muslim), the wali conducts the salat in the absence of the imam. Only a man can be a wali; a woman cannot be the wali, nor can a child. A wali is one of one's close relatives through blood. The husband cannot be (the wife's) wali. But if there is no wali present, the husband can conduct the salat of janaza (for his wife). Those who have the right to give the young child in marriage are his (or her) wali. The father takes precedence over the son in being a person's wali, that is, owner, guardian. If a dead person has no sons, brothers, paternal or maternal uncles, or a husband, one of the neighbors conducts the salat. The walis can appoint any non-relative their deputy (to conduct the salat). Someone else, even if he is the person willed by the dead person, can conduct the salat with the wali's permission. If such a person conducts it without permission, the wali may repeat the salat.

If the corpse has been interred and covered with earth without the salat has been performed or after the salat has been performed without the corpse having been washed, the salat must be performed on the grave unless it is strongly believed that the corpse has putrefied. The beginning of putrefaction depends on the kind of earth, the season, the weather, and on whether the corpse is fat or thin. It varies between three days to one month (after burial).

[Such words as "The nose falls on the fortieth day," "The corpse begins to rot on the fifty-third night" are not true, and it is wrong to have (the celebrated eulogy called) Mawlid performed (only) on these nights. They are the words of a tomb-keeper named Ahmad, who claimed to have seen them in his dream. Every service done for the dead is an act of worship. Worships are learnt only from ayats, hadiths, and the words of mujtahids. Worships cannot be changed haphazardly with the words of this person or that or with dreams. Those who want to change or defile worships become a kafir (unbeliever). Such services as reading the Qur'an, giving alms, saying prayers that are to be done for the dead must not be done on the fifty-third night (fifty-three days after death); we must try to rescue them by doing these services on the first day. Postponing these services till the seventh, the fortieth or the fifty-third night is like saying, "Wait for a while. I'll come to your rescue a few days later," to a person who is about to drown. Hadrat Muhammad Mathum says in the eleventh letter of the first volume of his Maktubat, "It will be a very good and great worship to give food and alms to the poor not customarily or for ostentation but for Allah's sake and to gift the thawab to the dead person's soul. But there is no dependable report saying that this must be done on a certain day or night. That is, there is no such principle." Many a time I have seen ads in Istanbul newspapers announcing that there will be religious rites at a Christian cemetery for some dead Christians on the fortieth day (of their death) and that their acquaintances are invited. When I asked them they said that it was their custom to help a dead person on the fortieth day of his death. This shows that performing such services as alms and mawlid for the dead on certain days is a Christian disease which has spread among Muslims, too].

It is haram in the Madhhabs of Hanafi and Maliki to place the corpse inside the mosque and perform the salat of janaza there. There are some savants who say that it is not makruh if the corpse is outside the mosque and some of the jamaat are inside it, but it is haram to perform the salat in that manner, too. All the jamaat must perform the salat outside. For, mosques are built for performing the five daily prayers of salat and their subsidiaries, such as the salat which is supererogatory, sunnat, [or qada], for reading (the Qur'an or other religious books), for preaching and teaching the religion. In case of such 'udhrs as rain, a storm, or illness, the salat of janaza can be performed inside the mosque. But the corpse cannot be taken inside.

A child that dies right after birth is washed, its salat is performed, it is entitled to be a heir and to leave inheritance, and it is named. A child that is born dead is not washed and its salat is not performed if it is not four months old. If it is four months old it is washed, shrouded in one piece and buried; but its salat is not performed. The same is done when a child taken captive together with its parents dies and when an insane adult person taken captive dies. Such people will not go to Hell, but in the world they are treated like disbelievers. When a child taken captive without its parents or a child taken captive with its parents one of whom has been converted to Islam later or a discreet (seven-year-old) child that has been converted to Islam dies, its salat is performed. For being converted to Islam, a disbeliever has to say the Kalimat-i shahadat completely and believe the six principles of iman, [that is, Amantu], when he hears them.

You should not ask an unlearned person the principles of iman and Islam; you should recount them to him and then ask him if he believes them. If his answer is affirmative, he is a Muslim. If an unlearned person asked about iman and Islam does not answer, it is all right. For, he says he does not know (or he does not answer at all) because he thinks the answer is to say certain words in a certain order. In other words, what he says he does not know is not iman itself but how to express iman. It is not wajib for a Muslim to wash, to shroud or to bury a disbeliever. A disbeliever is delivered to other disbelievers. If there are no other disbelievers, it is permissible to wash him as you would wash dirty clothes, to wrap him in a piece of cloth and bury him in a Christian cemetery. A dead renegade is not washed or shrouded; nor is he delivered to the people of the religion he has converted to; like a dog's carcass he is left in a ditch. Whether a Muslim or an unbeliever, a corpse is never burned. Nor are its ashes kept. It is not permissible to break or cut the bones of a corpse even if it is an unbeliever's.

It is not permissible for an unbeliever to wash a Muslim's corpse, be it his relative.

We have stated that there are three times when it is not permissible to perform the salat in the chapter dealing with (Prayer Times) of the fourth fascicle of Endless Bliss. If a corpse has been prepared before one of these three times it is not permissible to postpone the salat of janaza till that time begins. It is written in Maraqil-falah, "It is not makruh but it is permissible to bury a corpse at (one of) these (three) times." It is permissible to perform the salat of janaza at any time of the day. It is not necessary to postpone it till after one of the five daily prayers of salat.

The salat of janaza is performed once. It becomes supererogatory if it is performed again even after one woman has performed it. It is makruh to perform the salat of janaza as a supererogatory salat.

It is fard-i kifaya to perform the salat of janaza, to wash, shroud, arrange and bury the corpse, and it is wajib to perform the salat of 'Iyd; yet (in cases when the salat of janaza concurs with the salat of 'Iyd) the salat of 'Iyd is performed first lest those who are late for the jamaat confuse the salat of janaza with the salat of 'Iyd. It is explained in the chapter dealing with the salat of 'Iyd (in the fourth fascicle) that the salat of janaza for a corpse that is ready takes precedence over the Khutba of 'Iyd and over the final sunnats of Friday, evening, night and noon prayers. However, the books Hilya and Bahr state that the final sunnats must be performed first, right after the fard. It is mandub (not obligatory but very good) to make haste for the washing, shrouding and burying of the corpse and for the salat.

[As it is seen, it has been said by savants that the salat of janaza is performed before or after the sunnats. But no savant has said that the sunnats are omitted to perform the salat of janaza. Therefore, at times when the salat of janaza will be performed the tasbihs (that are said after each of the five daily prayers of salat) in mosques must not be omitted. Those who say that they have been omitting the tasbihs because it is wajib to perform the salat of janaza as soon as possible are wrong. It is not wajib but it is mustahab to make haste for the salat of janaza. It is a grave mistake to keep the corpse waiting for hours so that the jamaat will be large. Moreover, it is makruh to delay the salat of janaza in order to get a large jamaat; and the mistake becomes even graver when you omit the Ayat al kursi and the tasbihs of the salat this time for the sake of performing the salat of janaza as soon as possible. There shall be glad tidings for those muazzins who will eradicate this wrong practice by saying the Ayat-al kursi and the tasbihs when there is a janaza (corpse), too. Please see the final part of the fourteenth chapter (How Do We Perform The Salat) of the fourth fascicle].

It is not permissible to pray beside the coffin after the salat of janaza is performed. It is written in Zubdat-ul-maqamat "After the salat of janaza for Hadrat Imam Rabbani 'qaddas-Allahu ta'ala sirrah-ul-'aziz' was performed, they did not stay there to pray; he was taken directly to the cemetery. It is written in books of fiqh that it is makruh to pray standing after the salat of janaza. Some imams do so, but it is against the sunnat." [It is written in the fatwa of Bazaziyya also that it is not permissible].