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Reciting the Adhan at the Grave

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Would like to know whether it is correct to recite (aloud, like for salah) the adhan at the grave after the burial of a deceased Muslim. The wahhabis claim that this is bid’ah. Please comment with references.

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

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.

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