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.

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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.