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Ablution for attending the funeral

Question

After you attend a Janaza of a dead Muslim, you see his/her dead body and bury him/her, does your Wudu stands or broken. Some Imaams say that you should have a bath/shower and then perform Wudu to say your prayers. Can you please clarify what our Shariah says?

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. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

Ablution is not invalidated by attending the funeral prayer, or by looking at the dead body, or by attending his burial. If one says that ablution is invalidated by one of the above, then he is telling a lie on the religion of Allaah. However, it is desirable for a person who washed the dead body to perform Ghusl (ritual bath), and whoever carried the coffin to perform ablution as the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) said: "Whoever washes a dead person he should perform Ghusl and whoever carries a dead body, he should perform ablution." [Abu Daawood]. So, it is desirable to do the above [but it is not an obligation]; the evidence is that Ibn 'Umar  may  Allaah  be  pleased  with  him said: "We used to wash the dead, so some of us performed Ghusl, and others did not." [Al-Bayhaqi and Ad-Daaraqutni]

For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 84363.

Allaah Knows best.

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