Should We Visit the Grave for the First 40 Days After the Burial?

Answered by Ustadh Salman Younas

Question: Assalam aleykum

Is there a ruling or recommendation to visit the grave for the first 40 days after the burial?

We have observed growing up that someone from the family should visit the grave daily for the first 40 days.

Answer: assalamu alaykum

I have not come across any specific tradition or ruling concerning visiting the grave for forty days following the burial.

If it is done with the belief that it is a specifically established religious practice, then it would be considered blameworthy. However, if there is no specific religious intention behind it, it would be permissible.

I should point out that even if your family are performing such a practice with the belief that it is a specifically established religious practice, there are still guidelines concerning correcting them. One does not, for example, seek to argue with them in a manner that proves harmful and of no benefit. For more on this, please see:

The Criteria of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil

[Ustadh] Salman Younas

Checked and approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Salman Younas graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Political Science and Religious Studies. After studying the Islamic sciences online and with local scholars in New York, Ustadh Salman moved to Amman. There he studies Islamic law, legal methodology, belief, hadith methodology, logic, Arabic, and tafsir.