Qur’an Recitation Gatherings for New Houses or Factories: Sunnah or Innovation?
Source: Fatāwā Muḥammadiyyah, Vol. 1, Page 290
❖ Question
It is a common practice in our society that when someone builds a new house or starts a factory, they invite students from religious schools to recite the Qur’an. Along with this, the verse Āyat al-Karīmah is recited 125,000 times on date seeds. Afterward, the students who performed the recitation are served food.
Sometimes, the organizers (so-called “contractors” of such rituals) stipulate: “We will not take any direct payment, but you should donate four thousand, eight thousand, or more to our madrasah.”
The questions are:
- Is this practice established from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, or is it an innovation (bidʿah)?
- Will those who do it be rewarded or sinful?
- What is the ruling on attending such gatherings?
❖ Answer
Al-ḥamdu lillāh, waṣ-ṣalātu wa-s-salāmu ʿalā Rasūlillāh, ammā baʿd!
- Organizing Qur’an recitation gatherings for a new house or factory is not established from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the Companions (RA), or the Salaf al-Ṣāliḥīn (رحمهم الله).
- In those times, houses and shops were also built, and the Companions and Salaf were far more eager for blessings than us. The motive (dāʿīyah) and cause (muqtaḍī) existed back then, yet such recitation gatherings were never organized.
- Therefore, this practice is an innovation (bidʿah), and Ahl al-Ḥadīth must strictly avoid such practices.
Even ʿAbdullāh bin Masʿūd (RA) declared it a bidʿah when people performed dhikr of “Lā ilāha illallāh” on date seeds, as mentioned in detail in Sunan al-Dārimī.
❖ Conclusion
- This entire practice is an innovation.
- Those who engage in it or arrange it will not be rewarded but rather sinful.
- Participation in such gatherings is also impermissible.
Hādhā mā ʿindī, wallāhu aʿlam biṣ-ṣawāb.
