FUNERALS SECTION · 74 – THE DISLIKEDNESS OF SLAUGHTERING ANIMALS AT THE GRAVE
3222 – It is narrated from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him): The Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “There is no slaughtering of animals at the grave in Islam.” ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: (Before Islam) they used to sacrifice cattle or sheep at graves.
EXPLANATION
Before Islam, when a generous person died, an animal would be slaughtered at his grave and distributed. This practice has been prohibited. The animals slaughtered at graves are often sacrificed as an offering for the deceased. The meat of an animal slaughtered in the name of anyone other than Allah is not to be eaten. If the meat of an animal slaughtered at the grave for the sake of Allah, in order to provide for the poor who have settled near the grave, is eaten, then to avoid the appearance of it being slaughtered for the grave, it should be slaughtered elsewhere and the meat sent to the poor present there. One should avoid sacrificing animals at the graves of the awliyāʾ (walī / friends of God), spilling blood upon the grave and the deceased, and circumambulating graves as if they were the Kaʿba.