Why do we not offer the funeral prayer in the mosque?

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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and messenger.

The scholars differed concerning offering the funeral prayer in the mosque. Some of them consider it permissible whereas others disliked it.

As-Shaaf‘i, Ahmad and Is-haaq consider it correct with no dislike. This is due to the Hadeeth of `Aa’ishah since she ordered the people to offer the funeral prayer on Sa‘d Ibn Abi Waqqaas in the mosque. They criticized her opinion. Therefore, she wondered saying: “How fast do people forget that the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, offered the funeral prayer on Suhayl Ibn Baydhaa’ inside the mosque”. [Muslim]

However, the doctrine of Abu Haneefah and the famous doctrine of Maalik is dislike to offer the funeral prayer in the mosque based on the Hadeeth “Whoever offers the funeral prayer in the mosque deserves no reward.” [Abu Dawood]

But the scholars’ response to this may be excluded in points including:

-   This Hadeeth is weak according to the view of Imaam Ahmad .

-   The famous narrations of the Hadeeth in Sunan Abu Dawood quoted “he is not mistaken” instead of “he deserves no reward”.

-   Even if we adopted the narration “he deserves no reward,” it can be interpreted as follows: the one who offered the funeral prayer in the mosque then did not escort the deceased to the grave does not deserve the complete reward of those who did so.

After all that, the most preponderant opinion of the scholars is the permissibility of offering the funeral prayer in the mosque because the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, did it and there is no opposing evidence.

Allaah Knows best.