Can a Muslim Attend the Funeral of a Kafir Relative in a Church? | Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan

5,844 views·May 7, 2026

📌 In this video, Shaykh Salih al Fawzan clarifies the ruling on attending the funeral of a kafir relative in a church. ❌ The Shaykh explains that a Muslim does not attend or follow the funeral rites of the kuffar, even if the deceased is a close relative. Their funeral affairs are to be handled by those like them from the kuffar. ⚠️ He also clarifies the important exception mentioned in the Sunnah: if no one is found to bury the deceased, then the Muslim may bury the body only out of necessity, just as the Prophet ﷺ commanded Ali رضي الله عنه to bury Abu Talib. ✍ Hadith: عن علي عليه السلام قال قلت للنبي ﷺ إن عمك الشيخ الضال قد مات. قال: "اذهب فوار أباك ثم لا تحدثن شيئا حتى تأتيني". فذهبت فواريته وجئته فأمرني فاغتسلت ودعا لي. Narrated Ali ibn AbuTalib: I said to the Prophet (ﷺ): Your old and astray uncle has died. He said: Go and bury your father, and then do not do anything until you come to me. So I went, buried him and came to him. He ordered me (to take a bath), so I took a bath, and he prayed for me. 📚 SOURCE: Sunan Abi Dawud (Authenticated by al Albani and Ahmad Shakir.) https://sunnah.com/abudawud:3214 📌 Video Taken From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZwqjR3Kj0o ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ The Murjiah confuse the outward ruling with the inward ruling. - The outward ruling is the worldly judgment based solely on a person’s outward statements and actions. It does not depend on what is in the heart. - The inward ruling concerns the hidden reality of the heart, which cannot be known. It is only considered in matters of punishment and the ruling of the Hereafter. Ignorance, coercion, mistake, and denial are considered here, not in the outward ruling. ✍ The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas in Saudi Arabia. Fatwah no. 4400: 👉 (❗) "So clarifying the matter and establishing the proof (Iqāmat al-hujjah) is for the purpose of removing any excuse before carrying out the PUNISHMENT upon him, NOT in order for him to be called a kafir only after the clarification. 👉 (❗) Rather, he IS CALLED a kafir based on the outward act he committed. Such as prostrating to other than Allah, vowing as an act of worship to other than Him, or slaughtering an animal, like a sheep, for other than Allah.” 📚 SOURCE: Kitāb Fatāwā al-Lajnah al-Dāʾimah – First Collection, vol. 1, p. 220 https://shamela.ws/book/8381/396#p1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ The methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaah: The outward ruling is based exclusively on statements and actions. Matters of the heart are only considered in punishment and the final judgment, in this world by the judge and in the Hereafter by Allah. ✍️ Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852H) in Fath al-Bari (12/272), transmitting consensus: وكلهم أجمعوا على أن أحكام الدنيا على الظاهر، والله يتولى السرائر “THEY ALL UNANIMOUSLY AGREED that worldly rulings are based upon what is outwardly apparent, while Allah alone takes charge of what lies within.” End Quote ✍️ Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728H) said in As-Sarim al-Maslul (2/339): فمن قال أو فعل ما هو كفر, كفر بذلك، وإن لم يقصد أن يكون كافرًا، إذ لا بقصد الكفر أحدّ إلًّا ما شاء الله. “Whoever says or does that which is kufr, then he becomes a kafir by that itself, even if he did not intend to become a disbeliever, for no one intends kufr except whom Allah wills.” End Quote ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✍ The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas in Saudi Arabia. Question Three from Fatwa No. 11043 Answer: By this it is known that it is not permissible for a group of the muwahhideen, who hold the disbelief of the grave worshippers, to declare takfir upon their brothers from the muwahhideen who have withheld from declaring their disbelief until the hujjah is established upon them (i.e., established upon those who withhold the ruling). 👉 (❗) This is because their refraining from making takfir of them is due to a shubhah, which is their belief that it is necessary to establish the hujjah upon those gra