Offering Nafl Prayers and Conveying the Reward to the Deceased

Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri

✦ Question:​

What is the ruling on offering nafl (voluntary) prayers and conveying their reward to the deceased?

✦ Answer:​

This is an innovation (bidʿah) and an impermissible form of conveying reward (iṣāl al-thawāb). None of the early generations (salaf al-ummah) held this belief or practiced it.


Sayyidunā ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما said:


“لا يصلي احد عن احد”
No one can perform prayer on behalf of another.
(Al-Sunan al-Kubrā by al-Nasāʾī: 2918, with an authentic chain)


There is consensus (ijmāʿ) that no one can pray on behalf of another.


❀ ʿAllāmah Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr رحمه الله (d. 463 AH) writes:
“The Muslims have consensus that no one can perform prayer on behalf of another, whether for a living person or a deceased, whether the prayer is obligatory, Sunnah, or Nafl.”
(Al-Istidhkār: 10/167, 12/66)


❀ ʿAllāmah ʿAynī al-Ḥanafī رحمه الله (d. 855 AH) writes:
“قد اجمعوا انه لا يصلي احد عن احد”
The Muslims are unanimous that no one can pray on behalf of another.
(ʿUmdat al-Qārī: 9/125)