Can you read the Qurʾān for someone who has died?

In more detail

• Those who say it reaches

  The Ḥanafī text: a person may give the reward of any deed, prayer, fasting, charity or other, to another. The Ḥanbalī text: any act of worship whose reward is given to a dead Muslim benefits him, if Allah wills.

  Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:243 (on reciting for the dead and gifting its reward) · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:422–424

• Those who say it does not

  The well-known position of al-Shāfiʿī, and the Mālikī school as Khalīl gives it. 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.

  Al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Shāfiʿī), 1:89–90 (introduction) · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:423 · Qurʾān, al-Najm 53:39 · Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1631

• Later scholars in those schools

  In the Mālikī texts, later scholars, among them Ibn Rushd, held that the reward reaches. A group of later Shāfiʿīs, among them Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, chose the same, and advised making it a duʿāʾ: “O Allah, convey the reward of what we recited to so-and-so.”

  Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:423 · Al-Khaṭīb al-Shirbīnī, Mughnī al-Muḥtāj (Shāfiʿī), 4:110–111

• At the grave

  The Ḥanafī text has the visitor recite Yā Sīn and other sūrahs and ask Allah to send its reward. Al-Shāfiʿī recommended reciting what is easy, then praying for them. Aḥmad’s later position: no harm. The Mālikī text calls it disliked, as it was not the practice of the early generations; later scholars saw no harm in it.

  Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:242 · Al-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ (Shāfiʿī), 5:310–311 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:422–424 · Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 1:423

• Paying people to recite

  The Mālikī text calls hiring oneself out for an act of worship disliked. The Ḥanafī text counts taking a fee for reciting the Qurʾān among the wrongs at funeral gatherings.

  Al-Dardīr, al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr, with Ḥāshiyat al-Dasūqī (Mālikī), 2:18 · Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-Muḥtār (Ḥanafī), 2:240–241

• What is certain

  Duʿāʾ, charity and paying their debts reach the dead: al-Nawawī reports that the scholars agree, and Ibn Qudāmah knows of no disagreement.

  Al-Nawawī, Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (Shāfiʿī), 7:90 · Ibn Qudāmah, al-Mughnī (Ḥanbalī, with the other schools), 2:422–424