Feeding the Person Who First Lifts the Bier

Question

In our area it is considered necessary that when someone other than the household of the deceased is the first to lift the bier (janaza), it is then considered necessary to feed him, and if that person does not eat, it is considered a sin. And here there is also this: when a death occurs in someone’s house, the women of the neighbourhood come to his house bringing a little grain each, which a shaykh or some dervish then picks up and carries away. Is this correct according to the Shari‘a or not?

Answer

This is a completely baseless and wrong thing; it has no basis whatsoever in the Shari‘a.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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