The legal judgement of the benefits reaching the dead as a result of reciting the Holy Qur'an

عدد المساهمات : 9 21/05/2010 العمر : 36

Question:
A lot of people recite the Holy Qur'an and afterwards donate the reward of their reading for the dead; does this benefit the dead?

Answer :

The answer consists of ayahs and Hadiths:
This issue is known as donating the reward of worship for the dead. The scholars disagreed regarding this issue. The origin of the dispute is that there are some ayahs in the Holy Qur'an explaining the law of Allah concerning His punishment and reward and the changing of bad deeds into good ones. There are also so many authentic Hadiths showing that the dead parents benefit from the charity, fasting and the pilgrimage of their children performed on behalf of them.
The following ayahs are among the examples in this connection. Allah said: Allâh burdens not a person beyond his scope. He gets reward for that (good) which he has earned, and he is punished for that (evil) which he has earned (2:286) He also said: Indeed he succeeds who purifies his ownself (i.e. obeys and performs all that Allâh ordered, by following the true Faith of Islâmic Monotheism and by doing righteous good deeds). And indeed he fails who corrupts his ownself (i.e. disobeys what Allâh has ordered by rejecting the true Faith of Islâmic Monotheism or by following polytheism or by doing every kind of evil wicked deeds) (91:9,10) In another ayah He [Glorified He be] said: Except those who repent and believe (in Islâmic Monotheism), and do righteous deeds; for those, Allâh will change their sins into good deeds, and Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful (25:70) He [Glorified He be] said: Did you (O Muhammad peace be upon him) observe him who turned away (from Islâm). And gave a little, then stopped (giving)? Is with him the knowledge of the Unseen so that he sees? Or is he not informed with what is in the Pages (scripture) of Mûsâ (Moses), And of Ibrâhîm (Abraham) who fulfilled (or conveyed) all that (what Allâh ordered him to do or convey): That no burdened person (with sins) shall bear the burden (sins) of another. And that man can have nothing but what he does (good or bad). And that his deeds will be seen. Then he will be recompensed with a full and the best recompense. (53:33-41)
These ayahs and the like of them are obvious proofs that the person only reaps the benefits of his own endeavour and sincere actions which purify his soul and make him acquire the good intention and sincerity towards Allah.
As for the Hadiths narrated in the subject, all of them concentrate on one and the same question: do parents get benefits if their child fasts, gives charity or performs pilgrimage on their behalf? The answer is yes.
The scholars' dispute:
Scholars differed regarding these ayahs and Hadiths.
Some of the scholars said that the ayahs take priority over Hadiths; and that Hadiths are not strong enough to prevail over Qur'anic ayahs. Based on this, they said that a deceased does not benefit from the good deeds of others done for his sake, no matter what the deed is nor who the person doing it is.
Others said that the authentic and sound Hadiths are obvious in declaring the benefit of the parents from the charity, fasting and the pilgrimage offered by their children on their behalf. They said that there is no difference between the children and other people.
Bearing all this in mind, they decided that the deceased gets benefits from the acts of others after his death, so long as the reward of this act was donated for him regardless of who performed the act whether his own children or anyone else. They further claimed that the reward is the possession of the one who does the actions, and thus he has the choice to donate it to whomsoever he likes.
They interpreted the ayahs mentioned in this connection in a way that made their stand very weak in front of their opponents. In the same way, their situation in drawing a similarity between those who perform the acts other than the children -in whom there is no plain text to clarify their status -and the children themselves though there is a world of differences between the two types.
Du'a' is an independent worship of which the reward returns to the supplicating person. The one for whom the Du'a' is made will get benefit only when the Du'a' is answered. If the answer occurs, this does not mean that it is the effect of donating the reward for the dead but it is an issue awarded by Allah to the live and the dead.
As for the saying that the reward is the possession of the one performing the actions, the possession here does not have the worldly sense; the owner has no choice to move or to transfer the reward to anyone he likes. This is an invalid deduction. From all this discussion it becomes clear that the saying of donating the reward of the act to the dead whatever and however the performer and the action are, does not have proof or evidence.
Man's child is regarded as a type of his endeavour:
The opinion of Shaikh Shaltut is that those ayahs are entirely clear in their meanings and they are of the general legislation of Allah, which is not restricted to some people to the exclusion of others. The Hadiths to which the reference was made are related to the children donating the rewards of their acts to their parents. It is reported in the good and sound Hadith that the child of a person is one of his good deeds and actions. The Hadith narrated by 'A'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) that: The best food is that which you obtain from your endeavour and your children are among your endeavour" Narrated by Abu Dawud in the chapter "Sales" no.3528 and no. 3529 and by An-Nasa'i in the chapter titled "Sales", 7/240-24, and by Ibn Majah in the chapter "Transactions" and Ahmad in various places. From this it becomes clear that the meanings of the above mentioned ayahs refer to the benefit of the parents from the good deeds of their children when they donate the reward of these deeds to them.
As for reciting Qur'an by non-relatives to the deceased as some people got used to do, hiring some people to recite the Holy Qur'an in return of some money and donating the reward for the dead, performing pilgrimage on behalf of the dead, performing the obligatory prayer and fasting missed by the dead, thus absolving him from its punishment, all such acts do not rely on a sound legal basis.
Such acts are based on proxy in types of worship, which are legislated only for the purification of the soul and by virtue of which bad deeds may be changed into good deeds, if Allah wills. This is not possible except by personal efforts.
How could this be possible while the opinion of the majority of scholars is that this act was not known except after the time of the good ancestors? It was not reported that any of them performed any act then donated its reward for their parents though they were very keen to offer good deeds for others and were distinguished by their love for their Muslim brothers, whether alive or dead.
It is proper for the Muslim with regard to worship, the reward and the abolishment of the bad deeds to follow the religious instructions and not to go beyond the limits. The good deeds erase the bad ones and Allah's fearing causes forgiveness of the sins. It is none of the man's business to transfer the reward to others or to abolish their bad deeds.

by King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur'an

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