The Souls of the Dead Coming to Their Homes on Particular Days

Question

Is it correct to hold the third-day memorial gathering, the [memorial] Thursdays, the fortieth-day memorial, the death-anniversary commemoration and the like, or not? In some works of Hazrat Mawlana Shaykh ‘Abd al-Haqq Muhaddith Dihlawi ﵀ it is written that every Thursday the soul of the deceased returns to those it has left behind and hopes for charity and alms from them, and that likewise at the end of a year its return also takes place.

Answer

No; rather, all these matters are bid‘a (innovation in religion). Isal al-thawab (conveying reward to the deceased) in itself — by bodily and monetary charity, without fixing a date and without making binding what is not binding — is correct according to the Sacred Law and brings reward.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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