Yasir Qadhi – Regarding Reciting Quran For a Deceased Person – Ask Shaykh YQ #117

			Sister Shiva or chifa emails and says that her mother has passed away in a little corner on your
own. And she wants to do something for her on a regular basis. And she is saying that the easiest
thing for me to do is to recite the Quran, but she has been getting conflicting opinions about
whether this is permissible or not. So she asks what what is the position that is the correct
position with regards to reciting the Quran for her mother
		

			107 mean barbaric in Region No, he lay him first.
		

			Recovery.
		

			First and foremost, my condolences for your loss, we ask that Allah subhana wa tada grant your
mother for those and forgives her sins, and gives you and all of your loved ones Subbu. Also, I'm
very happy to hear actually that you want to do something regular, it really made me happy to read
this phrase in your email, because all too often somebody passes away. And well, sometimes relatives
do nothing. And sometimes they want to do one off. And that's good. I'm not discouraging that. But
our Prophet salallahu it he was Selim said that the most beloved of all good deeds to a lot is that
which is consistent and regular, even if it is small. So I was very happy to hear that you want to
		

			start something regular to do something for your mother. And that shows a shallow to other the love
that you have for her. It shows you're a dutiful daughter. And it shows that you have a commitment
in sha Allah that you will continually give back to your mother even as she gave on to you when she
was alive. So this is very good. And I love that spirit. And I ask all of us to think about when our
loved ones pass on that we do something, even if it's small, something regular for them. So that's
very, very good. Now you asked that you wanted to use specifically asked you wanted to recite the
Quran. However, let me just take a step back and say that obviously you can do a lot more before we
		

			get to the issue of the neuron that is explicitly mentioned in the Hadith. And I have given a much
more detailed lecture about this. In one of the final episodes of my bozak series if you can I
forgot the number I think it is eight or nine I forgot. But I given a lot of details, I went to a
lot of details over every single Hadith that is mentioned about what can you do for the deceased,
explicitly what is mentioned, and I went over, making dua for the deceased. And making is still far
for the deceased and giving charity on behalf of the disease. And in particular, building wells is
also mentioned literally explicitly on behalf of the deceased and performing hajj and also
		

			performing aroma. And also sacrificing an animal and gifting the reward of that meat to the
deceased. And also visiting the relatives and the friends of your of your mother or have your loved
one that you would regularly that you would typically not visit but you only visit because as a
memory of you know, your mother. So all of this is explicitly mentioned in the prophetic narrations.
And even if you decide to go beyond this, which is again, we're going to get to that issue. Please
also do these things, whatever you can do every once in a while so that you are also doing all of
this variety. Now, you are asking specifically about the issue of reciting the Koran. And the the
		

			the controversy, which has been a very minor controversy for Islamic history is a legal nature
controversy throughout all of Islam up until modernity. The controversy comes as follows that our
Prophet Sall Allahu Allah, he was seldom gave 789 various things that can be done for the deceased.
Sometimes he offered himself when a man came and says what can I do? He said, Yes, make do make is
still far. And sometimes the person asked him or messenger of Allah, I want to give charity on
behalf of my mother may I do so. So the point is that put together we have a list of things that are
mentioned in the Hadith. Oh, that's clear so far. Okay. The question arises, is that list
		

			exhaustive? Or is that list representative? Do you understand the difference? If that list is
exhaustive, then you put a full stop and you say nothing more can be done. And that's it. However,
if the list is representative, then what it means is that we can look at that list. And then based
upon what we see, we can add other things that are of a similar nature to what is already on the
list. Okay, so now and again, I've spoken about this in a lot more detail in one of my lectures on
the buzzer. I will simply summarize, because I need to also mention this concept in the q&a series
that we're doing over here. So I hope that inshallah if you are really interested, you can go to the
		

			more academic discussion in the in the in the Brazil series, which is online. Now, to summarize the
response
		

			The majority of scholars from the earliest of times have considered this list to be representative
and not definitive, not exhaustive. And the reasons for this are self evident of them is that
various people are asking different things of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and every
time anybody asked him anything, he said, Yes. Now, if only that thing was allowed, then the
response should have been, oh, you're only supposed to do this and not anything else. But however,
every time somebody comes, one person wants to do hedge, another person wants to build a, you know,
a wall, another person wants to give charity. And every time somebody comes, my mother died, my
		

			father died, I will do this every time he says, Yes, you may. Yes, you may. Yes, you may. So it is
as if the concept of gifting one's good deeds is being affirmed. And not that the list is being made
exhaustive, right. And so from this, we have from the four schools of Sunni law, from the very
beginning of times, two of them have allowed basically all good deeds, and two of them attempted to
restrict it, but even they, in the end, ended up allowing it therefore, the mainstream position of
all four schools of Sunni law, from all of the giants of of their traditions is that it is
permissible to gift the recitation of the Quran to the deceased. And this is again, I can go over so
		

			many quotations, the Hanafi school has always allowed this from the beginning of time, it's been a
bidding rights in his house year, that the mumble cassani, one of the earliest scholars of the
Hanafi madhhab, died 587, that emammal cassani says that it doesn't matter whether you give a gift,
even to the living or to the dead, and you may give intend to give the gift before you do the deed.
And you may even intend to give the gift after you do the deed, it is all permissible to do in other
words, the Hanafi school basically looked at a good deed, as if it is a type of currency in the eyes
of Allah. And that once you have that currency, you may then choose just like if you have money, you
		

			can give it to anybody you want. So you have a good deed that you've done. You may then gift it to
anybody whom you want living or dead, and you may make dua to Allah that Allah this aroma that I did
give to so and so Oh Allah, this charity I gave gifted to so and so. And that is your prerogative
because in the end of the day, you yourself did that deed. And
		

			the same goes for the Shafi school. The earlier shaft rates were a bit strict mama Schaeffer
himself, by the way, did not allow, you know, the gifting of the Quran from a Philippine
perspective. However, remember, no way comes along, you know, five centuries after member Shafi and
said that, you know, the more prominent position is that, yes, the Quran should not be recited for
the deceased. However, a group of scholars of our men have did allow that the Quran be gifted and
this is also the position of EMA devnet Hamburg, and this is the position also of the data lifter of
Egypt, which is the primarily of obviously Shafi in mehtab. And also the as heavy scholars of our
		

			times and the Syrian scholars of our times, which are all shaeffer A scholars that by and large,
they are now saying that it is completely permissible to gift one's good deeds to the deceased, no
problem. So this is the Shafi position as well, the mighty cases Well, again, there's you find
opinions on both sides. However, the majority of them allow the gifting of the recitation of the
Quran and of good deeds to other people. And this is very clear. So the famous the Maliki scholar,
		

			he writes in his shot matassa, Khalid, that was a hero in the later Maliki scholar said, there is no
problem in gifting the recitation of the haoran and even thicker, and in making all of it the swab
or the the good deeds going to the diseased and the diseased shall get the reward. And this is the
position of all of the righteous people, and the famous quote to be scholar emammal, called to be
from Cordoba, Spain, the famous emammal hold to be he also said that reciting the Quran, whether it
is done, you know, at the graveyard, or it is done afterwards that the recitation of the Quran is
going to get the tharwa will go to the deceased, and giving charity the third go to the seas and
		

			making is still far all of these, the thought or the good deeds will go to the deceased. And this is
the position of the majority of the Maliki scholars, so much so that in our times, this is the
default, the humble the scholars, the irony is that they were the only group that goes from laxity
to strictness. So the earlier Hammadi scholars, it is very clear that they allowed the gifting of
the Quran Mr. Mohammed is very explicit on this point he allowed the gifting of the Koran even
Kodama democracy, even Kodama. He says that
		

			Any good deed that is done can be gifted to the deceased, any Muslim can gift any good deed to
another Muslim and inshallah to Allah it will benefit that Muslim. And he explicitly mentioned in
the earlier part that if the Quran is recited over the person while he's about to pass away or even
afterwards, and the thought is going to be gifted to him, that inshallah tada that we hope for him
that it is going to reach him. And he says that there is unanimous consensus of all the Muslims of
every single land and of every single timeframe that they would gather together, and they would
recite the four on and they would intend to reward that recitation to their deceased and nobody
		

			would criticize them for doing this. This is the famous humbly scholar even Kodama in his book and
Mohini. You can look this up Volume Two page 225. And the same goes for remember booty indika
shuffle painter, he mentioned that this is the well known position of your moment that all good
deeds reach the disease. And, and this is something that has been done in all places and times that
people read the Koran for the disease, and no one has said that this is incorrect. So he says this
is like there is a generic there is unanimous consensus. What is interesting is that this is also
the position of even taymiyah and ignore him explicitly. It is very clearly the position of both the
		

			giant even taymiyah and his student ignore him that even Tamir Rice, it has been affirmed that the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam allowed sadhaka and allowed fasting for the disease. And all of
these evidences are used by Imam Ahmed to allow gifting other good deeds like Salah, and like Koran
to be given also to disease however it been Timmy then adds a very good point, he says, that it
should be known that it was not from the general custom of the early generations that every time
they prayed, or every time they recited the Quran, every time they've asked you to hedge that they
would give their the seeds to their deeds to all of the deceased or even those close to them. And
		

			the best method is to follow the early generations. In other words, what he is saying is, don't go
overboard. Every time you read the Quran, you don't say give the gift to somebody else. Every time
you give charity, you don't say you know, give the gift to somebody else that should not be done.
Rather, you choose wisely and like you say yourself that you want to give something regularly to
your mother. So every you know, day, maybe read a few minutes of Quran for your mother and the rest
for yourself, you know, so make sure you have your own good deeds as well. And if not pay him he has
a very lengthy passage in his famous book, Khattab wrote the book of the soul. And he actually has
		

			around seven pages in my edition, where he discusses this controversy. And he goes over all of the
evidence is that this is completely permissible. And he says that all of these texts, they simply
prove that the rewards of any good deed reach the dead when the living does it for the dead. And
this is what common sense and class and analogy leads to because the reward belongs to the one who
does it. And if he gets it, that is his right, just like if you were to gift any money that he had
to another person. In other words, again, the same philosophy that if you've done a good deed you've
given $100, right for the sake of Allah, that's your good deed, if you choose to gift it to somebody
		

			else, that is your prerogative, if you have recited the Quran, you want to give to to somebody else
that is your prerogative. So this is if not by him in his Kitab row. And then he says, As for what
some scholars and what he means here is the Martha's Zilla, that because the Morteza did not allow
this, interestingly enough, and those who prohibited in our time should think long and hard. Who
exactly are they following? When you mama didn't maintain? We have no claim? And pretty much all of
the format have of our times are saying this, who exactly are they following in their claims? So he
explicitly mentions some of the arguments that other non Sunni groups use, including the verse in
		

			the Quran, what Allah said in in Sani, illamasqua, that no soul shall earn anything except what it
itself has done. And he mentions that yes, the verse of course, is valid. However, you know, if
somebody wants to gift, a good deed to another person, the only reason they would do this is because
that person has benefited, the one who's gifting so it is a part of his good deeds. Why are you
wanting to give to your mother, because she's done so much for you. So then Allah is saying, what
les said, insanity lomasa. So your mother did something for you. Now you're giving that back to her.
It doesn't go against the verse that the soul is not getting except what it has done. And as for the
		

			famous Hadith, that when the son of Adam dies, all of his deeds come to an end except for three.
This Hadith is so easily explained. It is a misunderstanding by a very, very small group of scholars
who claim that they're following the settler
		

			And in reality, they have gone against the unanimous consensus of the set of no group before this
group that exists in our times has considered it an innovation to recite the Quran and gifted to the
deceased, except for some amongst that strand of those who claim to follow the setup. And of course,
this is, as with many of their other opinions unprecedented in Islamic history. But the claim that
the Hadith does not allow the gifting of good deeds because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
said that when the son of Adam dies, then everything is cut off from his deeds except for three.
This Hadeeth is very easy to explain, because Heidi says he there must have no Adam in Patara Arma
		

			Lu, who eliminated his good deeds or her good deeds cut off the Hadeeth has nothing to do with a
third party gifting good deeds to him. It's simply saying he can no longer accrue his own good
deeds, except for three things that he's done in his lifetime, that even when he's gone, then his
ama will continue. The Hadith has nothing to do, it simply cannot be used in the entire arena of
gifting. Because the Hadith does not negate that a third party can gift. The Hadith only says his
own deeds, he's not going to pray anymore. Okay, that's very true. He's not going to get anything,
you know, good from from him what he has done. That's very true, except for the three things that
		

			even when he passes away, however, if another person gifts, then of course, that is something that
has nothing to do with this particular headache. Now, of course, our sister is saying that she's
confused because she's read some online controversies in this regard. And of course, you know, I
have to be fair here, yes, there is an opinion, which is unprecedented in Islamic history, as I
said, so the permanent committee of scholars of Saudi Arabia in its first one, number two to three,
two, they said that it is prohibited to recite the Quran for the deceased, and that it does not
reach the dead. And that in fact to do so, it is a beta or this is an innovation. And she had Advani
		

			alert hammer, he also said that it is only allowed for the children of the deceased to give to hold
on to the parents otherwise, no one else can gift to the deceased, and that's based upon his own
what is called Vahidi or literalist or soul, that he did not allow anybody outside of the children
to do so. So and this is the position also of other greater Anima we love and respect them. There's
not meant at all to denigrate them. Some of them are my teachers, I love them immensely, Shaheen
earthman, and others are loving them immensely for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala. But the
truth is more beloved to us than any individual. And the fact of the matter is that I am not aware
		

			of any scholar, pre this movement, claiming that reciting the Quran for the deceased is an
innovation in and of itself. True, some scholars said, it doesn't reach the dead. And that's the
mama shafr he said this, but he did not call it an innovation, it was a 50 issue for him was a legal
issue. And for this movement to make it a theological one, there is no basis for this, it is a legal
issue. It has nothing to do with with the aspects of al Qaeda much less aspects of bidda. And in
fact, as I said, all four schools of law have accepted this except for this one strand that is that
is a very prominent in our times, and has a position that it's there and if you choose to follow it,
		

			then that's that's your prerogative and you can do the other things. But I think it is patently
clear, that the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, in this regard about gifting to
the disease, that it is not restrictive, rather, it is indicative, that essentially, the prophet
system is allowing the gifting of good deeds to the deceased, because it is your prerogative, it's
your good deed. However, even taymiyah does have a very interesting point. And I think that that
should be followed. And that is that we don't just go around gifting every single deed that we do.
That doesn't make any sense. Every single time we opened up the Koran, we finished reciting it, we
		

			give to somebody else will then what is going to be left for you. Because do realize a very good
point a very interesting point you need to understand this, your brothers and sisters, the concept
of gifting a good deed is literally like gifting money to somebody good deeds is the currency of
Allah subhanho wa Taala. Imagine if you gave your money to everybody else, what would you have that
for yourself? So when we give to our mother, deceased parent, when we give to our father, when we
give to an uncle or a gift to anybody who's moved on in this world, and we give them a good deed,
		

			we expect a lot to reward us more for the gift.
		

			But technically, the gift itself is no longer in our possession. I hope you understand that point.
Right? Technically, if you read a juice of the Quran and you shut the most
		

			Have you said Oh Allah give the reward of this recitation my deceased mother. Excellent. You have
taken all of that reward, and you have gifted it to your mother. And you want a lot to give you
something different, and inshallah better for you. Then this recitation, but technically that
recitation is not yours anymore. Now, can a lot give you the gift of that recitation, and more, of
course, he can. A lot of Galician coding. But technically, the point is that you've gifted it to
somebody else. Therefore, as you've been Tamia says, This is not something that is done for each and
every gift for each and every good deed you choose, every once in a while you do something for
		

			somebody else, Okay, no problem. But the concept of just gifting indiscriminately, it should not be
that Oh Allah give the restoration to every single Muslim in the world. That's not the point. The
point it's a very prayer, would you just take your bank account and just throw it in the streets for
everybody know, it's precious to you, your good deeds are precious to you, you only give them to
somebody who is more precious to you than those good deeds, somebody who's impacted you more than
you know, in a way that you need to repay. And that's why, you know, your parents are obviously the
first that come to mind or if anybody has helped you in a way that you need to repay them, in the
		

			eyes of Allah subhanho wa Taala. And therefore, choose this wisely, who you give to, and what you
give to, and how often you gift, choose it wisely. And also, my position is that it is completely
permissible to give the Quran even to me and have no claim says this. And really, those people who
claim to be following these scholars, really, they need to think long and hard, not just about this
one issue, but in reality, much of their filth, and even aspects of their theology, they need to
rethink through because they have broken away from the actual self and the mainstream scholars of
Islam. This is the accusation that was made against them is somewhat true. But so my position is
		

			that it is allowed to gift, the hold on to the disease. All of that having been said, two points to
conclude number one,
		

			if you give the Koran excellent, but make sure you also do the things that are mentioned in the
Hadith, Hajj, or Umrah dou R is the far southern, old here, building wells, try to do all of those
as well, and then do other things as well. And then point number two that I didn't discuss in this
q&a, because we don't have time for that. The the issues that are surrounding the mechanisms of
gifting, right, so the issue of you know, having particular customs or particular festivals, or
congregational issues of everybody coming together, that opens up another gray area. And indeed, you
know, we just quoted even Kodama, who actually explicitly says that people would come together and
		

			recite the Quran. So all of these, that's another discussion altogether, I would say that the more
specific we try to make these rituals, the more problematic it becomes, keep it generic, keep it
open, keep it private is even better. But if people are coming together and gifting, you know, the
recitation of the Quran and of itself, it should not be made a big deal as even Kodama himself
mentions that people will do this without any controversy. At the same time, the best method to
follow is indeed, the method of the earliest generations. And if we don't have any specific days or
specific routines to do this, it is definitely safer, and it will avoid any controversy.
		

			Nonetheless, if a person a family that is believing does have a date that people are going to come
to read the Koran without anything extravagant taking place without anything that is clearly under
Slavic taking place, then this has been the practice and the custom of the bulk of the oma, as these
scholars have said, in all centuries, and in all places, and it is something that in and of itself,
even if I don't encourage it, I do not find any reason to problematize it as well, if it is done in
a manner that is simply reading the Quran, and that's it, then we let it be and don't make any
controversy. Well, as somebody who's passed away, it's not the time to implement your version of
		

			what you think is the sooner nothing wrong is going on. At the end of the day, people are coming
together to read the Quran. I mean, Subhanallah I mean, even if you disagree, you don't have to go
if you really feel that way. You don't have to go. But you don't have to cause a controversy at this
point in time. Because, again, it's only a very, very, very small group of modern scholars who have
problematized. This otherwise, their own predecessors of the humbly tradition did not problematize
this of the medical tradition of the Hanafi tradition. All of these great scholars, we find exposit
quotes in this regard. So those that are doing these Koran, readings for the disease. They have lots
		

			of precedents in early Islam, they have greater lemma that they are quoting and they have
		

			The practice of the oma as even Kodama says without any Nikita without any criticism, people in
every asset and Mrs. Every land in every place are doing this, and it is the accepted custom booty
says it is as if there is a jamaa on this issue that it is permissible, so, respect them. And if you
have a different position, you may respect yourself and your own opinion by not participating in
that matter and following your own position but understand that the positions of the ruler might
have been different than what you're adopting and agree to disagree in this regard. In the end of
the day, Allah subhanho wa Taala knows best and we ask Allah for him to feel and with that we come
		

			to the conclusion of today's q&a. I will see you in Charlottetown. All next week was Santa Monica
maracas wa barakato.