What benefits the deceased

1The deeds that continue

When a person dies, their own deeds come to an end, except three that keep bringing them reward.

• The Prophet ﷺ said: when a person dies, his deeds come to an end except for three: ongoing charity, knowledge that is benefited from, or a righteous child who prays for him. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1631
• Ongoing charity (ṣadaqah jāriyah) is a gift whose benefit lasts, such as a well, a mosque or an endowment. Knowledge that benefits can be something they taught that people still use. These are examples, not words of the ḥadīth.
• A righteous child who prays for them is one of the three. The rest of this page is about what children, family and friends can still do.

2Duʿāʾ and asking forgiveness for them

Praying for the dead and asking Allah to forgive them reaches them and benefits them. On this there is no disagreement: Ibn Qudāmah says he knows of none, and al-Nawawī reports that the scholars agree. al-Mughnī 2:422–424 · al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Muslim 7:90

The Qurʾān praises the believers who pray for those who went before them:

• Allah tells the Prophet ﷺ to ask forgiveness for the believing men and believing women. Qurʾān, Muḥammad 47:19
• Anyone can pray for them, at any time. The Prophet ﷺ said that when a Muslim prays for his brother in his absence, the angel says: and for you the same. Abū al-Dardāʾ narrated it. The ḥadīth speaks of anyone who is absent. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2732a
• The Prophet ﷺ prayed for the dead at every stage. In the funeral prayer he asked Allah to forgive them. After a burial he stood by the grave and said: ask forgiveness for your brother and ask that he be made firm, for he is now being questioned. At night he went out to the graveyard of al-Baqīʿ and said: O Allah, forgive the people of Baqīʿ al-Gharqad. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 963 · Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3201 (ṣaḥīḥ, al-Albānī) · Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3221 (ṣaḥīḥ, al-Albānī) · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 974a
• When Abū Salamah died, the Prophet ﷺ taught Umm Salamah to say: O Allah, forgive me and him. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 919
• The funeral prayer is itself a duʿāʾ for them. The Prophet ﷺ said that when forty men who associate nothing with Allah pray over a Muslim, Allah accepts their intercession for him. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 948
• The Mālikī text notes that the early generations’ practice for their dead was charity and duʿāʾ. al-Dardīr and al-Dasūqī 1:423

Duʿāʾs from the Qurʾān

• Ibrāhīm’s prayer: “Our Lord, forgive me and my parents and the believers the Day the account is established.” Qurʾān, Ibrāhīm 14:41
• Nūḥ’s prayer: “My Lord, forgive me and my parents and whoever enters my house a believer, and the believing men and believing women.” Qurʾān, Nūḥ 71:28
• “My Lord, have mercy upon them as they brought me up when I was small.” The verse speaks of parents in their lifetime. It is given here as a duʿāʾ for parents, not as a ruling about the dead. Qurʾān, al-Isrāʾ 17:24

This page is about a Muslim who has died. If the person was not Muslim, the evidence on asking forgiveness for them is different; please ask your imam. Qurʾān, al-Tawbah 9:113 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 976b

Duʿāʾs for the grieving

3Charity on their behalf

Giving charity on behalf of someone who has died reaches them and benefits them. The four schools agree on this. al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Muslim 7:90 · al-Mughnī 2:422–424 · Radd al-Muḥtār 2:243 · al-Dardīr and al-Dasūqī 1:423

• A man told the Prophet ﷺ: my mother died suddenly, and I think that if she could have spoken she would have given charity. May I give charity on her behalf? He said: yes, give charity on her behalf. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2760 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1004a
• Saʿd ibn ʿUbādah’s mother died while he was away. He asked whether charity on her behalf would benefit her, and the Prophet ﷺ said yes. Saʿd then gave his garden in charity for her. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2756
• A man whose father died without making a will asked whether charity on his behalf would expiate for him. The Prophet ﷺ said yes. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1630
• Al-Nawawī says charity reaches the dead by the consensus of scholars. The Ḥanafī text says a person may give the reward of any good deed to another; Ibn ʿĀbidīn reports that even those who held back on purely bodily worship made an exception for charity and ḥajj. al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Muslim 7:90 · Radd al-Muḥtār 2:243
• Charity for them is a gift. It does not take the place of their debts, which are paid from the estate after the funeral costs and before any bequest or inheritance (next section). al-Sirājiyyah (al-Sajāwandī), opening chapter

4Their debts come first

Settling the debts of someone who has died is urgent. From the estate, the funeral is paid first, then the debts, then any bequest from up to a third, and only then the heirs’ shares. al-Sirājiyyah (al-Sajāwandī), opening chapter · Qurʾān, al-Nisāʾ 4:11

• The Prophet ﷺ said: the believer’s soul is suspended by his debt until it is settled for him. Al-Tirmidhī said the second chain is more correct than the first. Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1078 (ḥasan) · Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1079 (ḥasan)
• A man was brought for the funeral prayer who owed three dinars and had left nothing. The Prophet ﷺ told the people to pray over their companion themselves, until Abū Qatādah took the debt on himself; then he prayed over him. Later, when Allah gave him the means, he said: whoever of the believers dies leaving a debt, its payment is on me, and whoever leaves wealth, it is for his heirs. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2289 · Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 2298
• The Prophet ﷺ said: every sin of the martyr is forgiven except debt. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1886a
• If the estate cannot cover the debts, the Ḥanbalī text says the heirs do not have to pay from their own money, but it is recommended that someone pays, to free the one who died. al-Mughnī 3:152–153
• Paying their debt reaches them: al-Nawawī reports that the scholars agree on this. al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Muslim 7:90

Zakāh they owed and had not paid

• A large or unclear debt, or a question about zakāh, is one for your imam or an estate adviser. The inheritance calculator takes the debts out before it works out the shares. Inheritance calculator

5Fasts they owed

If someone missed obligatory fasts and could have made them up before they died, but did not, the schools differ on what the family does. If they could not make them up, for example because they were ill until they died, nothing is owed: al-Nawawī reports no disagreement in his school, and gives the same as the view of Abū Ḥanīfah, Mālik and most scholars. al-Majmūʿ 6:368–371

• The Prophet ﷺ said: whoever dies owing fasts, his next of kin (walī) fasts on his behalf. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1952 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1147
• A man asked: my mother died owing a month’s fast; shall I make it up for her? He said: yes; the debt of Allah has more right to be paid. In other versions it was a sister, and in one the fast was a vowed fast. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1953 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1148a
• A woman asked about her mother, who owed a month’s fast. He said: fast for her. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1149a
• Ibn ʿUmar, when he was asked, used to say: no one fasts for another and no one prays for another. Mālik records this in the Muwaṭṭaʾ, without a full chain. Muwaṭṭaʾ Mālik, Fasting
• In the texts read for this page, the heir is never obliged to fast: the Ḥanbalī and Shāfiʿī texts say the heir is not obliged to, and the Ḥanafī and Mālikī texts do not have anyone fast for them. al-Mughnī 3:152–153 · al-Majmūʿ 6:368–371 · Radd al-Muḥtār 2:424–425 · al-Mudawwanah 1:279–280

• The amounts (a mudd, or the amount of zakāt al-fiṭr) are as the texts give them. This page does not turn them into money; ask your imam for a local figure.

6Ḥajj and ʿumrah on their behalf

A ḥajj can be done on behalf of someone who has died. The schools differ on two practical points: whether it is paid for from the estate, and who may go. Where the schools do not require it, a family can still do good for them: the Ḥanafī text hopes an heir’s ḥajj for them will suffice, and the Mālikī text says to give charity or the like on their behalf.

• A woman of Juhaynah said: my mother vowed to do ḥajj and died before doing it; shall I do ḥajj for her? The Prophet ﷺ said: yes, do ḥajj for her. If your mother owed a debt, would you not pay it? Pay Allah, for Allah is more deserving of fulfilment. In another report the question was about a sister. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1852 · Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 6699
• A woman said of her mother: she never did ḥajj; shall I do ḥajj for her? He said: do ḥajj for her. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1149a
• Of a man who had died, the Prophet ﷺ said: had he been a Muslim, and you had given charity or done ḥajj on his behalf, it would have reached him. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 2883 (ḥasan)
• A man may do ḥajj for a woman: al-Bukhārī’s chapter heading says so. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1852

• The Ḥanbalī and Shāfiʿī condition rests on a ḥadīth: the Prophet ﷺ heard a man say “Labbayk on behalf of Shubrumah” and asked: have you done ḥajj for yourself? He said no. The Prophet ﷺ said: do ḥajj for yourself, then do ḥajj for Shubrumah. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 1811 (ṣaḥīḥ)

7Reciting the Qurʾān for them

Whether the reward of reciting the Qurʾān reaches the dead is a real and long-standing difference among Sunni scholars. Both sides are given here, and neither is chosen. Every school agrees that duʿāʾ and charity reach them, so a family can always do those with certainty. al-Mughnī 2:422–424 · al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Muslim 7:90

• Those who say it reaches. The Ḥanafī text: a person may give the reward of any deed, prayer, fasting, charity or other, to another, and this is the position of Ahl al-Sunnah. The Ḥanbalī text: any act of worship whose reward is given to a dead Muslim benefits him, if Allah wills. In the Mālikī texts, later scholars, among them Ibn Rushd, held that the reward of reciting the Qurʾān, given to the dead, reaches them. Radd al-Muḥtār 2:243 · al-Mughnī 2:422–424 · al-Dardīr and al-Dasūqī 1:423
• Their reasoning, in Ibn Qudāmah’s words: the sound ḥadīths show that charity, ḥajj and fasting done by others reach the dead, so other deeds do too. al-Mughnī 2:422–424
• Those who say it does not reach, as their school’s best-known position. Al-Nawawī: the well-known position of al-Shāfiʿī is that the reward of recitation does not reach the dead, while some of his companions said it does. Khalīl: the Mālikī school is that it does not reach; three views are reported in the school. al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Muslim 1:89–90 · al-Dardīr and al-Dasūqī 1:423
• Their evidence: “And that there is not for man except that for which he strives”, and the ḥadīth that a person’s deeds end at death except three. Qurʾān, al-Najm 53:39 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1631
• Later Shāfiʿī scholars: a group of the school, among them Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, chose the view that the reward reaches, “and people act on it”. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ advised making it a duʿāʾ: after reciting, say “O Allah, convey the reward of what we recited to so-and-so.” Mughnī al-Muḥtāj 4:110–111

• Paying people to recite: the Mālikī text calls hiring oneself out for an act of worship disliked (the well-known view). The Ḥanafī text counts taking a fee for dhikr and recitation among the wrongs at funeral gatherings (see “Things families often do”). al-Dardīr and al-Dasūqī 2:18 · Radd al-Muḥtār 2:240–241

8Visiting the grave

Visiting graves is recommended for men, and the four schools say so. The Prophet ﷺ first forbade it, then said: visit them, for they remind you of death. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 977a · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 976b · Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1054 (ṣaḥīḥ) · Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3235 (ṣaḥīḥ)

On arriving, greet them with the words the Prophet ﷺ taught his Companions:

• Then pray for them and for the whole graveyard. At al-Baqīʿ the Prophet ﷺ said: O Allah, forgive the people of Baqīʿ al-Gharqad. Ibn Qudāmah says that adding “O Allah, forgive us and them” is good. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 974a · al-Mughnī 2:421–425
• Do not sit on graves, and do not pray towards them. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 972a
• The Ḥanbalī text calls leaning on graves or walking on them disliked, and recommends taking off your shoes between the graves unless there is a need. The Prophet ﷺ told a man walking between the graves in sandals to take them off. al-Mughnī 2:421–425 · Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3230 (ḥasan)
• The Shāfiʿī text says not to touch or kiss the grave. al-Majmūʿ 5:310–311
• The Mālikī text sets no fixed day, time, length or wording. Reflect, keep busy with duʿāʾ, and do not eat or drink on the graves. al-Dardīr 1:422
• The Ḥanafī text says to stand while visiting and making duʿāʾ. Radd al-Muḥtār 2:242

• On women: a ḥadīth says the Prophet ﷺ cursed women who visit graves often. Al-Tirmidhī reports that some scholars held this was before the permission, which then included men and women, and others held that it is disliked for women. Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1056 (ḥasan)

9Things families often do

Many families do these things out of love for the one who died. Here is what the schools say about them, so that you can decide with your imam. No one should be shamed for what they did before they knew.

• The Sunnah is that neighbours and relatives cook for the bereaved family. The Prophet ﷺ said: prepare food for the family of Jaʿfar, for what has happened has occupied them. All four schools recommend it. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3132 (ḥasan, al-Albānī) · Radd al-Muḥtār 2:240–241 · al-Dardīr and al-Dasūqī 1:419 · al-Majmūʿ 5:320 · al-Mughnī 2:410
• The family hosting meals for visitors, including on set days such as the first, the third or after a week: all four schools discourage it. The Ḥanafī and Ḥanbalī texts call it disliked, the Mālikī text a disliked innovation, and the Shāfiʿī text an innovation that is not recommended. Ibn Qudāmah allows it when there is a real need, such as guests who have travelled from far away. Radd al-Muḥtār 2:240–241 · al-Dardīr and al-Dasūqī 1:419 · al-Majmūʿ 5:320 · al-Mughnī 2:410
• Gatherings of reciters for a khatm, or for particular sūrahs, with food: the Ḥanafī text calls these disliked too. It says feeding the poor is good. Radd al-Muḥtār 2:240–241
• Paid recitation: the Ḥanafī text says that where such gatherings involve wrongs such as taking a fee for reciting the Qurʾān, there is no doubt they are forbidden, and a bequest for them is void. Radd al-Muḥtār 2:240–241
• Ibn ʿĀbidīn adds that it is disliked especially when some of the heirs are minors or are absent. Radd al-Muḥtār 2:240–241
• After the funeral, the debts and any valid bequest, what is left belongs to the heirs. On the property of orphans, the Qurʾān says: “Those who devour the property of orphans unjustly are only consuming fire into their bellies, and they will be burned in a Blaze.” al-Sirājiyyah (al-Sajāwandī), opening chapter · Qurʾān, al-Nisāʾ 4:10
• The fortieth day: the research behind this page found no classical text on it, so this page says nothing about it.

Marking, building and writing on graves

When ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn was buried, the Prophet ﷺ carried a stone himself, placed it at his head and said: I mark my brother’s grave with it, and I shall bury beside him those of my family who die. He forbade plastering graves, sitting on them and building over them. In other reports, writing on them is named as well. Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3206 (ḥasan) · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 970a · Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 1052 (ṣaḥīḥ) · Sunan Abī Dāwūd 3226 (ṣaḥīḥ)

10Keeping ties with the people they loved

Honouring the people your parent loved is among the finest kindness to that parent.

• Ibn ʿUmar gave his own donkey and turban to a man whose father had been a friend of ʿUmar, and said he heard the Prophet ﷺ say: the finest kindness is for a son to keep ties with those his father loved. It appears in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim under the chapter on keeping ties with the friends of one’s father and mother. Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2552a
• After Khadījah died, the Prophet ﷺ spoke of her often, and when he slaughtered a sheep he sent portions to her friends. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3818
• The Prophet ﷺ told a woman that she could perform her late mother’s vowed ḥajj on her behalf, as a debt owed to Allah. The sections on fasts and ḥajj above give the schools’ conditions. Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1852
• Keep praying for them and giving for them, as above.

Related pages

• Visiting a grieving family: what to bring, what to say, and how long to stay.
• Duʿāʾs for the grieving: duʿāʾs for the one who died and for those left behind.
• Inheritance calculator: the debts and bequests come out before the shares.
• Muslim funeral services directory: masjid funeral committees, Muslim cemeteries and burial funds near you.
• The widow’s ʿiddah: the waiting period after a husband dies.