Reciting the Adhan at the Grave

According to main reference works of the Hanafi, Shafi`i, and Maliki schools, the practice of giving the adhan at the grave does not have a specific legal basis. Therefore, performing it believing that it is something established in the Sacred Law would be reprehensible.

Ibn Abidin said in this Radd al-Muhtar, the definitive source for fatwa in the Hanafi school,

“.… In only mentioning these sunnas [of the proper burial] there is an indication that it is not a sunna to give the adhan when entering the dead into their grave, contrary to the prevalent habit.

Ibn Hajar [al-Haytami] explicitly stated in his Fatawa that it is a reprehensible innovation, and said, “Whoever thinks that it is a sunna through analogy (qiyas) because of the recommendation of giving adhan for the newborn child, by ending matters as they began, is in error.” Some of our [Hanafi] scholars have explicitly stated that even the customary handshaking [in particular ways] after the ritual prayers is disliked, even though shaking hands is itself a sunna. This is only because of that fact that it has not been specified in this particular place. Therefore, persisting in doing it could make common people think that it is a sunna after ritual prayers…” [Radd al-Muhtar, ‘Bab Salat al-Janaza,’ 2.235]

In the Shafi`i Books:

The position quoted from Ibn Hajar al-Haytami above was mentioned with approval in the Hashiya on Imam al-Ramli in his Nihayat al-Muhtajila Sharh al-Minhaj, considered one of the top commentaries on Imam al-Nawawi’s definitive Minhaj al-Talibin. [Nihyat al-Muhtaj, ‘Faslfi Bayan al-Adhan wa’l Iqama’, 1.401] This is also mentioned in Sulayman al-Jamal’s Hashiyat al-Jamal on Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya al-Ansari’s Fath al-Wahhab, and other relied upon Shafi`i works…

And Allah knows best.

Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani.