Is It Permissible to Gather for Reciting Quran for the Deceased?
Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani as presented by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Question
Is it permissible to gather for Quran recitation and remembrance of Allah, on the third, seventh, and fortieth days after a person passes away?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate. May Allah alleviate our difficulties and guide us to what pleases Him.
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani addressed this question on the SeekersGuidance Answers Service:
It is permitted to gather for the recitation of the Quran. In fact, this is a praiseworthy Sunna of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace).
However, there is no specific proof for holding a gathering to complete the Quran on a specific day–and deeming that such specification is religiously binding or necessary would be a reprehensible innovation (bid‘a).
Thus, the scholars mention that it is best to hold such gatherings, with proper observation of Islamic propriety, on other than the mentioned days after someone’s death.
And Allah alone gives success.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani
I pray that this benefits, that Allah guides us to every success in this life, and the ultimate success in the Hereafter, Amin.
Presented by [Shaykh] Irshaad Sedick
Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.
