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Fatwa CenterReciting the Athaan when burying the dead
Question
What about Saying Azan on grave (After burial)?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Calling the Athaan (call to the prayer) when burying the dead is not valid; rather, it is an innovation. Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami 
was asked about the ruling on calling the Athaan and Iqaamah (the second call for establishing the prayer) when closing the grave (after burying the dead) and he answered as in “Al-Fataawa Al-Fiqhiyyah Al-Kubra”: “It is an innovation and whoever claims that this is a Sunnah when the dead is put in the grave by analogy to the permissibility of doing so for a new-born child as a way of doing the same thing at the end as it was done at the beginning, then he is wrong. What is the relationship between the two matters? Indeed, the fact that this was done at the beginning of one’s life [i.e. at birth] and this is the end (of his life) does not necessitate that we do the same thing [as done at the beginning].”
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said: “There are no basics for calling the Athaan when putting the dead in his grave.” He was also asked about the practice when putting the dead in his grave and a person calls the Athaan as loud as he could exactly as the Mu’aththin calls the Athaan for the prayer, is this correct? He answered: “This is not correct; rather, this is an innovation which the people innovated when burying the dead, like someone descends in the grave or stands at the edge of the grave and then he calls the whole Athaan or that he only says the first 4 Takbeers (i.e. saying Allaahu Akbar). All this is innovation, because what is permissible when burying the dead is that the person who puts him in the grave just says: “Bismillaah and on the religion (Sunnah) of the Prophet ” and he should not say anything else. So when the dead is buried and the burial is finished, one should stand by the grave and ask Allaah to make the dead firm in answering the questions of the two angels and seek forgiveness for him because when the Prophet used to complete burying the dead, he would stand over him and say (to his companions): “Seek the forgiveness of Allaah for your brother and ask Allaah to make him firm, for he is being questioned right now.”
Allaah Knows best.
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