Analyzing the basics of the legitimacy of absent prayer in the jurisprudence of Islamic schools

Different jurisprudences of Islamic schools have contradicting ideas about the absent prayer. This contradiction is due to several reasons, including the hadith from The Prophet (PBUH) about his prayer for Najashi. The objective of this study is to investigate the jurisprudential foundations of absent prayer for a dead body in different jurisprudence of Islamic schools. The results showed that those who believe in absent prayer based on the Najashi hadith, they have some disagreements with the instances of absent corpse. Some of them believe that such prayer is acceptable only for those who have a prominent feature. Some others extended the domain of dead corpse to a great extent that included death of Corona, missed or drowned bodies etc. On the other hand, there are different viewpoints about the absent prayer in mega cities. Imami’s and some of the Sunnah’s jurisprudences do not believe in absent prayer. This perspective is correct; as the word “Salah” can be interpreted as praying, too and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) prayed for him. Even if “Salah” is translated as the act of praying, the corpse of Najashi became present for The Prophet (PBUH) and he prayed for the present corpse. All the Islamic jurisprudences believe that some of the conditions of the dead body prayer can be ignored. The present study has been carried out based on library sources and descriptive and analytical method.