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How is the prayer for a deceased mother who died during childbirth and her deceased fetus performed? Are they prayed over together or separately? Are they buried in one grave or separately? Does the gender of the fetus affect the ruling?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

If a woman and her child die, it is permissible to pray over each of them separately, which is preferred by the Shafi'is and Hanafis, or over them together, which is preferred by the Hanbalis. If several funeral prayers for men and women are to be performed, one prayer is sufficient for all of them, with the males placed closer to the Imam and the females closer to the Qibla, as stated in narrations. It is permissible to bury them together only when necessary.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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