Deeds that Benefit the Deceased (with Sign Language) - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

In the name of Allah, we praise Him, we ask His help and we ask His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He misguides, none can guide him.

I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared. And you will not die except as Muslims.

O you people, fear your Lord, Who created you from a single soul. And He created from it its mate. And He spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah in Whom you ask for mercy. Verily, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the right words. He will amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great victory.

The best hadith is the Book of Allah. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the worst of things are its innovations. And every innovation is a creation. And every creation is a misguidance. And every misguidance is in the Fire.

This Life is a Test

Allah has granted us this life of the dunya so that He may test us as to which of us is better than the others in performing good deeds and in pleasing Allah. As Allah says in Surah Al-Mulk:

Allah, Al-Khaliq, Al-Malik, is the One who has created the life and the death so that He may test you as to which of you is better than the others in performing good deeds. All of us are being tested by Allah. And Allah has given us the opportunity to perform as many good deeds as we can. Rather, Allah has encouraged us. And out of His mercy, He gave us guidance through His messengers and by revealing the divine books, so that we obey Him and we can please Him.

Allah says:

Whoever does or commits any evil act, he or she will not be punished except with equal punishment — equal to his evil act. And whoever performs good deeds, be it a male or female, but the condition is that they are believers — such people will enter Paradise. They will be granted and provided by Allah many bounties without any account.

Allah says:

Whoever performs any good deed, he or she does it for the benefit of themselves. By performing good deeds — by praying, giving in charity, fasting, performing Hajj, reading Quran, making the dhikr of Allah, making dua to Allah — all these good deeds are not there to benefit Allah. Rather, they are for us to benefit ourselves. Whoever performs any good deed, he or she does it for the benefit of themselves. And whoever does any evil act, then the burden and the punishment of those evil acts are because of their own earnings, because of their own evil acts. And your Lord is not an oppressor of His slaves. He does not oppress anyone.

Deeds That Continue After Death

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, Allah has granted us this life so that we can perform as many good deeds as we can. And we have only one chance and one opportunity. We have this chance and this opportunity as long as we are alive in the life of this dunya. Once we have left this dunya, we will have no more opportunity and there will be no second chance to perform any good deeds.

But Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram, who is Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim, out of His mercy, He has allowed some of the good deeds that can continue benefiting us after we have left this dunya. And such deeds are the deeds that we need to concentrate on while living the life of this dunya, so that once we have left this dunya, we continue receiving the reward of these good deeds.

And the Prophet ﷺ has explicitly informed us of those good deeds that can benefit us while we are in our graves. He ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 13, Hadith 1631)

When a person dies, all of his deeds are cut off — they come to an end — except three deeds, three good deeds that can continue benefiting him or her while they are in the graves.

1. Sadaqah Jariyah — Continuous Charity

The first one — the Prophet ﷺ said — is the continuous charity, ongoing charity, the sadaqah jariyah. This is the sadaqah that you have given in the way of Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram in order to please Him while you are alive. You give in a way where people benefit on a regular basis, continuously. And you will receive the reward even after you have left this dunya.

2. Beneficial Knowledge

The second good deed that can benefit you in your grave is the knowledge — the knowledge of the deen of Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram. The knowledge of the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of your Prophet ﷺ. The knowledge that you have passed on to others and people benefit from that knowledge. As long as they continue benefiting from that knowledge, you will continue receiving the reward in your grave.

3. A Pious Child Who Makes Du'a

And the third deed that can benefit you once you have left this dunya is your own children, your offspring, who will be making dua for you and will be begging Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram to forgive your sins and to grant you paradise.

Seven Deeds That Benefit the Deceased

Sayyiduna Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, says that the Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith reported by Imam al-Munziri in At-Targhib wa At-Tarhib:

(At-Targhib wa At-Tarhib, Imam al-Munziri; also reported by al-Bazzar — see Majma' az-Zawa'id, Vol. 1)

There are seven types of deeds that can benefit a person while he is in the grave. Why did he say seven? Because some of them come and fall under the category of Sadaqah Jariyah. So mainly there is no contradiction between the two ahadith — rather the second hadith is the explanation of the first one.

The Prophet ﷺ said: The deeds that can benefit the deceased while he or she is in the grave — the first one is the one who has stored and taught the knowledge of the religion of Allah. And the remaining five fall under the category of Sadaqah Jariyah — continuous charity. In fact the Prophet ﷺ has explained to us what Sadaqah Jariyah means:

When a person dug a canal or a river, or the person digs a well while he is alive, or he has planted a palm tree so that people can benefit from its shade and fruit, or he has given as a gift a copy of the Quran to someone to read and benefit, or he has constructed the house of Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram — the masjid — so all these five come under the category of Sadaqah Jariyah. Either you dig a well, or you construct a masjid, or you contribute towards the construction and the building of a house of Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram, or you give someone a copy of the Quran so that they benefit from it, or you do any other act, any other form of charity that people continuously benefit from.

And then the Prophet ﷺ said: And the seventh deed that can benefit a person — that can benefit a deceased while he or she is in the grave — is the pious child that makes dua of maghfirah and forgiveness from Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram for their deceased.

Giving Charity While in Good Health

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, these are the deeds that we need to concentrate on and make efforts to perform while we are alive. Give in the way of Allah for your own benefit. And whenever you give in charity, remember — first and foremost, you are benefiting yourself, and you are making your own hereafter. You are basically enlightening your own grave. So give in the way of Allah while you are in the state of good health.

As the Prophet ﷺ said, the best form of charity is when a person gives in the way of Allah while he is in the best state of health — not ill. When we fall ill, we tend to give whatever we can in the way of Allah, and especially when someone comes to know that he or she is going to die soon — then that type of sadaqah and charity in the way of Allah might be accepted by Allah, but this is not the best form of charity.

Allah says in Surah Al-Munafiqoon:

Spend from what Allah has provided you in this dunya before the time comes when death approaches one of you. Then when he is sure and he knows that he is going to die very soon, he says: "Oh my Lord, why do you not delay my death for the next few days or weeks or months or years? So that I can give all of my wealth in Your way and I become from amongst the righteous." This is not the Sunnah of Allah — to delay the limited or the set time for anyone. The time of death is never delayed. Allah is aware of what you do.

Raising Pious Children

So the point is that in the form of continuous charity, we should make our efforts to give in the way of Allah for our own benefit. As well as giving the tarbiyah to our children. As the Prophet ﷺ said, one of the deeds that can benefit you while you are in your grave is your own pious children.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, just imagine if you have left this dunya and your son and your daughter do not know how to perform Salah. And even before Salah, they cannot differentiate between truth and falsehood. They cannot differentiate between Shirk and Tawheed. They do not have the understanding of the Tawheed of Allah. They commit Shirk. They call upon other than Allah. They give for other than Allah. They spend for other than Allah. They sacrifice for other than Allah. Do you think that such children can benefit you after you have left this dunya? No, Wallahi.

The pious children — pious, those who are on the right path — those who first and foremost understand the Aqeedah and know the Tawheed of Allah and do not associate any partners with Allah. And then they are regular in their five daily prayers. They fast during the month of Ramadan. They give Zakat from their wealth. They perform Hajj and Umrah. They fulfill all the obligations that Allah has placed on them. And this is your responsibility as parents, as fathers and mothers, that you give tarbiyah to your children to the level that when you leave this dunya, they are able to make dua for you.

The Prophet ﷺ said: A person dies and his rank is raised in Paradise. He says to Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram: "O my Lord, how come that You have raised my rank in Paradise, although I have left this dunya and I did not perform any deed after my death, after leaving the dunya?" Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram says: "This is because of the dua of your child for you."

So just think and imagine and ask yourself: Have you prepared your offspring, your children, to the level that they can make dua for you? If not, then my dear brothers and sisters, you have neglected your responsibility that Allah has placed on your shoulders.

Conveying Knowledge

Likewise, the third thing that the Prophet ﷺ has informed us of is the knowledge — the knowledge of the religion of Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram. And it does not mean that you must be a qualified scholar to convey the message of the deen of Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram. The Prophet ﷺ says:

Convey from me and pass the knowledge to others, even if you know only one verse. If you know only one verse of the Quran, just convey it. The person who learns that verse from your mouth, from your tongue, through your efforts — you will receive the reward after you have left this dunya. So do not think that these deeds are light or small deeds. Rather, they are the actual deeds that are going to benefit you.

Deeds Others Can Perform on Behalf of the Deceased

Apart from these three deeds, Allah has also allowed for us to benefit from some of the deeds of others — the deeds that our relatives can perform on our behalf once we have left this dunya. Before I make mention of some of those deeds, bear in mind the principle, my dear brothers and sisters. Only the deeds that can benefit the deceased — your deceased, your relatives — once they have left this dunya, are only the deeds that our Prophet ﷺ has confirmed. You cannot use any analogy or any qiyas saying that if this deed can benefit, why the other cannot? This is not the case in the religion of Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram. So do and perform the deeds that can benefit your deceased ones — only the deeds that your Nabi ﷺ has informed you of and instructed you.

1. Du'a for the Deceased

One of them — and this is the best one — is the dua. When you make dua for your dead ones, this dua is of highly benefit for the deceased, and especially when you make dua for your own parents. In fact, all of us are obliged by Allah to make dua for our parents, asking Allah:

"Oh my Lord, have mercy, shower Your mercy upon my parents, my mother, my father. Oh my Lord, as they have brought me up when I was little, I was young — Oh Allah, shower mercy on them."

And this is not only for the parents — for your own relatives and other believers and everyone who has left this dunya in the past. Allah says:

Those who come after — after the Companions of Rasulullah ﷺ — the people of this Ummah, they make dua for their predecessors, their salaf and those who have passed away. They ask Allah: "Oh our Lord, forgive us and also our brothers in the religion, in the deen — those who have preceded us in the belief, in iman. And oh our Lord, do not place any malice, any hatred in our hearts against any believer. Oh our Lord, You are the Most Merciful, Most Kind."

So dua is the best form of deed that you can do on behalf of the deceased.

2. Sadaqah on Behalf of the Deceased

Another good deed that you can perform on behalf of the deceased — and your deceased ones can benefit from once they have left this dunya — is the sadaqah and the charity when you give in the way of Allah with the intention that Allah gives the reward of your sadaqah to your deceased ones. The Prophet ﷺ has allowed this.

A lady came to the Prophet ﷺ and she said: "Oh Messenger of Allah ﷺ, my mother has passed away all of a sudden and I am sure if she had any chance to give any wasiyyah — to make a will — she must have asked me to give something in charity in the way of Allah. But she never got this chance. Oh Messenger of Allah, is it going to benefit her if I give in charity on her behalf?" The Prophet ﷺ said: "Yes."

Abdullah ibn Abbas says that Sa'd ibn Ubadah, he was on a journey — he was away — when his mother passed away. He came back and came to Rasulullah ﷺ and he said: "Oh Messenger of Allah, my mother passed away while I was away. Can it benefit her if I donate, if I give in charity, if I do sadaqah on her behalf?" The Prophet ﷺ said: "Yes."

3. Hajj or Umrah on Behalf of the Deceased

The third thing that you can do on behalf of the deceased is the Hajj or the Umrah. You can perform Hajj or Umrah on behalf of your deceased ones — your parents, your grandparents. You can perform Hajj and Umrah on their behalf. But for this particular deed, there is a condition. The condition is that you can only perform Hajj or Umrah on behalf of the deceased after you have performed your own Hajj. Because your own Hajj is a pillar of Islam — it is obligatory upon you before you perform Hajj on behalf of the deceased.

Again, we find the hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ in which he ﷺ has allowed this.

4. Fasting on Behalf of the Deceased

The fourth deed that can benefit the deceased is fasting on their behalf — and especially when they had obligatory fasts to make up but never got the chance. So you, as the inheritor, or the warith, or the children, fast on their behalf.

Again, a companion of Rasulullah ﷺ came to him ﷺ and said: "Oh Messenger of Allah ﷺ, my mother passed away while she had one month of fasts on her. She never got the chance to make them up. Can I fast on her behalf?" The Prophet ﷺ said: "Yes, you should fast on her behalf."

Some of the ulama have said it is restricted to obligatory fasts. But some others took this hadith as evidence that you can fast on behalf of the deceased.

The Principle: Evidence is Required

Other than these acts of worship, other than these good deeds, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam — you need to have evidence if you intend to perform any deed on behalf of the deceased. This is the basic principle. If there is no evidence from the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ, there is no guarantee that your good deeds are going to benefit your deceased ones.

May Allah give us tawfiq and ability to understand His religion. May Allah enable us to perform as many good deeds as we can while we are alive in the life of this dunya.

Innovations with No Evidence — Bid'ah and Khurafat

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, as I have said already — any deed that you perform and do on behalf of the deceased must be backed and based on evidence from the Quran or the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. Something that you perform with the intention of benefiting your deceased one, and you have no evidence from the Quran or the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ — such deeds or such acts fall under the category of innovation, bid'ah and khurafat.

Unfortunately, amongst the Muslims there are some traditions. People have made up a few things and they think and believe that their acts and deeds can benefit the deceased ones. One of them is when people gather together — the relatives and other than relatives — they gather together on the third day or seventh day or tenth day or fortieth day after someone has died. They gather together and they cook the food and they read the Quran altogether with the intention of giving and passing on the reward of the recitation to the deceased one.

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, there is no evidence of such an act in the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. We know that many companions of the Prophet ﷺ passed away in his life, including his own cousin Ja'far and his uncle Sayyiduna Hamza, may Allah be pleased with him, his own daughters, his own sons, his own wife. They passed away but the Prophet ﷺ never asked any of his companions — in fact, he ﷺ himself never read Quran and he never asked any of his companions to read Quran on behalf of the deceased ones. So there is no evidence.

So the tradition and the custom that we have in our cultures — and especially amongst the Asian people — that they gather together to cook the food and invite the relatives and other than relatives, and especially they invite one of the imams of the masjid and ask and request them to read the Quran, and then they say: "We donate the reward of this recitation to our deceased" — this is something that has no proof in the religion of Allah Dhul-Jalal wal-Ikram. Whether you call it Khatam or Chaliswa or Satwa or whatever you say — there is no evidence.

And unfortunately, some of us — and especially this is not to put anyone down, but this is the reality and this is the fact — some of our elders who have been practicing this throughout their life find it very, very difficult to give up such traditions and customs. And if you explain to them that there is no evidence from the Quran or the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ, they give the evidence of: "We saw our forefathers doing this. We have been doing this throughout our life. Our fathers, our grandfathers, our elders, our imams, our maulvis, our priests — everyone has been doing this. Are they all wrong?"

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, you need to understand the principle. The religion is what Allah said and what His Messenger ﷺ said. That's it. No one has any value, no say in the religion of Allah if there is no proof and evidence from the Quran and the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. We do not ask you to curse your elders. We do not ask you to forsake and completely stay away from your elders. Rather, you must have respect for them, because respecting the elders is part of our religion. But it does not mean that you blindly continue following them without finding any evidence for their acts in the Quran or in the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ.

So these traditions, these customs, they have no place in the religion of Allah. Likewise, people sometimes believe that some other acts can benefit the deceased without any clear evidence from the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. One of them is when people leave some flowers on the grave and they believe that as long as these flowers remain fresh, it is going to benefit the deceased. Again, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, there is no evidence of this act in the Shariah of Allah.

Conclusion

So the point is that first and foremost we need to make all our efforts to please Allah and to perform as many good deeds as we can while we are alive in the life of this dunya. Do for yourself whatever you can. And then secondly, concentrate on the deeds that are going to benefit you after you have left this dunya — as the Prophet ﷺ has highlighted three of them. And thirdly, if you are going to perform any deed on behalf of the deceased, then remain within the boundaries of Islam, remain within the boundaries of the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ.

May Allah grant us the ability to understand His religion and to act upon whatever we say and whatever we hear.