Suhaib Webb – Benefiting the Deceased

Assalamu alaikum. This

is a question actually

that I get from quite a few people.

Is it allowed for them to make charitable

donations

on behalf of deceased Muslims, whether family members,

friends,

or even righteous people

who've impacted their life.

First, let me say that this is an

issue of chilaf.

There is a lot of differences on this

issue.

Although

there's

a great axiom that just because there's differences

doesn't mean that we can invoke differences

as an evidence. Okay?

But it does mean that we invoke differences

to observe a certain type of decor.

As the imam

said,

that these issues no one should raise their

hand and fight.

These are academic discussions.

The minority

of jurists within the Sunni schools

state that this is not allowed

based on the the explicit meaning of the

hadith that many of you know that the

actions of people cease except 3.

The other group, which is the majority,

they state that that hadith,

while certainly

appears to be

as we talk about in,

universally applied

every,

they say that it is also restricted

by other narrations.

One of the best is Janaza.

Janaza doesn't fall under any 3 of those

categories.

In fact, Janazah is not the amal of

the mayyit. It's not the action of the

dead person,

but it's the action of other people. So

therefore now we understand

that the hadith has its own restrictions.

For example, that one,

al janaza.

So they use that to say, in Janaza,

we ask a lot to forgive the person.

We do things on their behalf

to ensure their.

So therefore with PS analogy,

this can be expanded to any type of

good

that's done on behalf

of

the righteous person.

Sayedid Imam al Shafi'i when

he was asked about reading the Quran at

the grave of a deceased person, of course,

he said if you could read a little

bit of Quran, it's good. If

you could read the entire Quran, it's better.

Understanding this idea that

with the right intention,

Allah's kareem, Allah's al Din

will be used to benefit

the person who's passed away.

The 3rd evidence, and of course, Imam Sha'af

is not really evidence, it's just to kind

of offer a cadence. So the second evidence

is du'a,

like we continue to make du'a for the

deceased.

The prophet

as they were walking away from the grave,

he said, ask

Allah for your brother because he's being questioned.

So again, the idea of benefit

not being restricted

in the sense that we've understood it from

the explicit meaning of the hadith,

every action of a person stops,

but that there are certain situations, especially when

doing

where a person can do that on behalf

of a deceased Muslim.

And keep those questions coming. You can send

them directly to me at [email protected].

I will start to post those regular answers

here on the Swiss Q and

A Bank.