Fawāids |Qur'ān | Authentic Sunnah

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Shaykh Muqbil ibn Hādī said:

“Allāh says in His noble Book:

وَأَنْ لَيْسَ لِلْإِنْسَانِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَى

“And that man shall have nothing but what he strives for” [al-Najm 53:39].

Now, in the time of the Prophet (ﷺ) the daughters of the Messenger of Allāh died, as did ʿUthmān ibn Madh’ūn, and Hamzah, and a group of the Companions — yet it has not been transmitted that the Prophet (ﷺ) commanded [anyone] to recite over any of them.

As for fasting, however, there is an explicit text on it: the Prophet (ﷺ) says:

من مات وعليه صوم صام عنه وليه

“Whoever dies while owing a fast, his guardian shall fast on his behalf.”

And the Prophet (ﷺ) says:

إذا مات ابن آدم انقطع عمله إلا من ثلاث : صدقة جارية ، أو ولد صالح يدعو له ، أو علم ينتفع به

“When the son of Adam dies, his deeds are cut off except from three: a continuing charity or a righteous child who prays for him, or knowledge from which benefit is derived.”

And the verse — “And that man shall have nothing but what he strives for” — is qualified by some twenty-seven distinct considerations, as related by the author of Hāshiyat al-Jamal ʿalā Tafsīr al-Jalālayn, who says he took this from the books of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah.

So the correct view is that nothing reaches him [the deceased] except what the [textual] evidence has specifically singled out — such as pilgrimage [hajj], the funeral prayer over the deceased, charity given on behalf of the deceased, fasting, supplication, and seeking forgiveness [on his behalf].

As for the hadīth “Recite Yā-Sīn over your dead” — it is a weak hadīth, for it comes by the route of Abū ʿUthmān — and he is not al-Nahdī — narrating from his father, who is unknown [majhūl]; so there is clear weakness and confusion in it, as al-Shawkānī relates in Nayl al-Awtār.” (Link: https://muqbel.net/fatwa.php?fatwa_id=3877)

Shaykh Ibn Bāz:

Q: What is the evidence for restricting their [the dead’s] benefit to [certain] deeds rather than others?

A: These matters are tawqīfiyyah [restricted to what is textually established] — there is no room for opinion (raʾī) in them; rather, one acts in them only according to what the evidence (al-dalīl) requires, due to the generality of his saying (ﷺ):

“Whoever introduces into this affair of ours that which does not belong to it, it is rejected” –

it’s authenticity is agreed upon.” [al-Bukhārī 2697; and Muslim  1718]

(Majmū al-Fatāwā 13/251)

Shaykh al-‘Uthaymīn:

“Q:…does reciting the Qurʾān over the graves benefit the deceased?…

A: Reciting the Qurʾān over the graves is not from the guidance of the Prophet (ﷺ), nor the guidance of his Companions — and accordingly, it is an innovation (bidʿah)…

…As for its benefiting the deceased — it does not benefit the deceased; for innovation (al-bidʿah) does not benefit its doer, nor anyone else.

But the scholars differed concerning one who recites Qurʾān in a manner not constituting innovation, and intends its reward to be for a specific person — does this reward reach him, or not?

Some of the people of knowledge said: the foundational principle (al-asl) in matters of worship is tawqīf [i.e., restricted to what is textually established]; and nothing reaches the deceased except what the Sunnah indicates reaches him — such as charity, for instance, or fulfilling an obligatory fast [owed by the deceased], or fulfilling an obligatory Hajj.

Whatever lies beyond that, for which the Sunnah has not come, does not benefit the deceased and does not reach him.

And they used as evidence the saying of Allāh — The-Most-High:

وَأَن لَّيْسَ لِلْإِنسَانِ إِلَّا مَا سَعَى

{And that man shall have nothing but what he strives for} [53:39].

They said: this verse is general in that man has nothing except what he strives for, except what the Sunnah has brought — so what the Sunnah has brought becomes a specifier [mukhassis] of this general [ruling], and we confine ourselves to it.

There is no doubt that this position is a strong one, due to the strength of its reasoning and the clarity of its evidence.” (Fatāwā Nūr Alā Darb 6/149)