Malfuzat - Volume VIII — Page 347
11 February 1906 347 Distributing Food in the Cemetery in the Name of the Deceased A person asked that those who accompany the dead person take baked bread or other items to the cemetery and, after burying the deceased, distribute it among the poor. What is the ruling regarding this? The Promised Messiah as said: All things are dependent on intention. If it is the intention that since the poor gather at this place and charity can reach [i. e. benefit] the deceased, so as the person is buried on the one hand and charity is given to the poor on the other so that it will benefit him and he may be forgiven, this is a good thing. However, if this work is undertaken merely as a ritual, then it is not permissible because its reward is neither for the deceased nor for those who give it. There is no benefit in it at all. Isq at for the Dead A person asked for a ruling regarding isq at [giving money for feeding the poor or other virtues to remove the deceased’s burden of sin] of a person who dies. The Promised Messiah as said: This is wholly an innovation, and no evidence can be found in support of it from Sunnah and Hadith. 1 1. Badr, vol. 2, no. 7, p. 2, dated 16 February 1906