Du‘a with Raised Hands at a Grave, and Isal al-Thawab for Oneself in One’s Lifetime

Question

(1) What is the ruling on making du‘a at a grave — whether the grave of a righteous person or an ordinary grave — without raising the hands? As is the custom and convention: “Recite the fatiha.” (2) Some people, while still alive, have the third-day memorial gathering, the fortieth day, the death-anniversary commemoration, a khatm of the Qur’an and charity performed for their own souls, and thereafter regard themselves as dead: they take part at no one’s [house] in death or in life [neither in funerals nor in…

Answer

Isal al-thawab (conveying reward) as such — without binding oneself to a date, day, form and the like — is permissible both for the living and for the dead; but the third-day memorial gathering, the fortieth day, the death-anniversary commemoration, the customary fatiha and the like are all baseless in the Sacred Law, bid‘a and impermissible, and abstaining from them is…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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