Funeral prayers for missing bodies not obligatory but encouraged - Mufti

Funeral prayers for missing bodies are normally performed for Muslims who died of minor martyrdom due to drowning, fire, murder or accident and their bodies are not found.

Kelantan Mufti Datuk Mohamad Shukri Mohamad said such prayers were not obligatory but encouraged, and meant that the body was not present in front of the congregation or was far away.

The prayers for the missing body was similar to that performed for normal remains of dead Muslims, he said when commenting on the announcement by the Malaysian government Thursday that the Malaysia Airlines flight MH379 was officially declared an accident under the international aviation regulations and that all the 239 passengers and crew members on board were considered as dead.

Flight MH370, which carried 12 crew members and 227 passengers, including two infants, disappeared from radar screens while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, about an hour after taking off from the KL International Airport on March 8, last year.

It was scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 6.30am on the same day.

Mohamad Shukri said the prayers could be performed anywhere whether at the mosque or at home.