Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- There is a unanimity of opinion that commemorating the seventh day or fortieth day or death anniversaries, and holding Qur’anic recitations on such occasions is a reprehensible innovation to be shunned.
2- However, reading the Qur’an on other occasions in a group and making a du`aa’ for the deceased is not all considered reprehensible, according to many scholars.
Elaborating on the issue of reading the Qur’an in a group on behalf of the deceased, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and an Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
This is an issue on which scholarly opinion is divided. While there is a unanimity of opinion that commemorating the seventh day or fortieth day or death anniversaries, and holding Qur’anic recitations on such occasions is a reprehensible innovation to be shunned, reading the Qur’an on other occasions in a group and making a du`aa’ for the deceased is not all considered reprehensible, according to many scholars. Some of them not only consider it as permissible but even as a good practice.
It should, however, be pointed out that paying people to recite the Qur’an is considered undesirable. There is no harm if people on their own volunteer to read the Qur’an and offer a supplication donating the rewards for the deceased.
Source: Excerpted, with slight modifications, from: www.muslims.ca
Focusing on commemorating the fortieth day or death anniversaries and holding Qur’anic recitations, the late Sheikh Hassanein Makhluf, the late Mufti of Egypt, states:
Holding such forms of gathering known as Al-Arba`in (i.e. the 40 days anniversary), where the relatives of the dead gather together to read the Qur’an and make du`aa’ is an innovation or bid`ah.
Such form of gathering has no backing from the Prophetic Sunnah and the act of the Prophet’s Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) as well as their righteous successors. The practice was not known until recent times.
It is a new innovated act that really do more harm than good because it involves reopening the wound, reviving the sadness, and such thing has no legal backing.
Concerning the issue of offering condolences, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported to have said: “Condolences should be offered once only.” (i.e. they should not be repeated more than once).
Hence, we advise our dear Muslim brothers and sisters to avoid holding such gatherings known as Al-Arba`in which brings no gain or reward to the deceased.
In short, this bad custom has no religious backing in Islam. Allah Almighty says: “…And whatsoever the Messenger gives you, take it. And whatsoever he forbids, abstain (from it). And keep your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is stern in reprisal.” (Al-Hashr 59:7)
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.