Book Release: Dedicating Rewards to the Deceased

 Alhamdulillah, the book-a joint project by Nawa Books and The Foreword Publications-is now available from Amazon and Lulu

Blurb:

If a person were to supplicate, recite the Noble Qurʾān, give in charity, or do any other act of worship and righteousness, and then dedicate the reward for that deed to someone deceased from this Ummah and ask Allah the Exalted to make it reach that deceased person, is such an action legitimate? And does the reward for that deed reach that deceased person?

Shaykh Muḥammad Fawāz an-Nimr, may Allah preserve him, is one of the leading Ḥanafī teachers of this age, based in Damascus. He graduated from Maʿhad al-Fatḥ al-Islāmī in 1985 and in the following year took up teaching posts at that institute as well as at the Umayyad Grand Masjid. Since then, he has taught several books on various topics. His lessons are available on YouTube and several are uploaded daily to his channel: @MFawazAlnemer.

From the translator's introduction:

The book in your hands is an attempt to put an end to a debate that actually ended several centuries ago. That is, it ended among the ʿulamāʾ, those who are qualified to speak on the matter, and yet, for some reason, it has been revived in recent times. As you will see in the book and in the appendices, the early generations did indeed differ over whether the reward for reciting the Qurʾān reached the deceased, but over time they came to be of one accord: the reward for reciting the Qurʾān does indeed reach the deceased and it is the muʿtamad position of all Four Schools.

These words of Imam as-Suyūṭī in Sharḥ as-Ṣudūr, which are quoted in Appendix A, make this very clear:

[The ʿulamāʾ] also infer from the aḥādīth that mention it, even though they are weak, for their sum total indicates that there is a foundation. Furthermore, the Muslims in every big city still gather together and recite for the benefit of their deceased without any reproach. Thus, it is a consensus. All of this has been mentioned by al-Ḥāfiẓ Shams ad-Dīn ibn ʿAbdul Wāḥid al-Maqdasī al-Ḥanbalī in a volume he wrote on the issue.

Al-Qurṭubī said, ‘Ash-Sheikh ʿIzz ad-Dīn ibn ʿAbdis Salām would issue fatāwā stating the reward for what one recites does not reach the deceased. When he had died, one of his companions saw him, so he said to him, “You used to say the reward for what one recites does not reach the deceased and is not gifted to him, so how is it?” He replied, “I used to say that in the abode of the world. Now, I have gone back on my position after seeing Allah’s magnanimity therein and that it does reach him”.’

And with Allah alone is every success.

For UK readers, the book is also available from Madani Bookstore.