What is your guidance regarding those who hold mourning gatherings?

Question:
Shaykh Salih, sometimes you pass by certain houses and it looks as if the house is a wedding venue. When you ask, they say, "This is a mourning gathering." What is Shaykh Salih's guidance?

Answer:
Holding mourning gatherings for the deceased is a reprehensible matter. This is one of the practices of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah), and it falls under wailing, as Jarir ibn Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "We used to consider gathering with the family of the deceased and preparing food to be wailing." Holding these mourning gatherings and the interpretations attached to them are forbidden because they are a religious innovation (bid'ah), because they are a form of wailing, and because they involve heavy financial burdens and extravagance. Also, there are wrongdoings in them, and there may be acts of associating partners with Allah (shirk). All of this is among the negatives of this practice, which has no benefit for the living or for the deceased. What is prescribed (mashru') regarding the deceased is to seek mercy for them, make supplication for them, seek Allah's pleasure for them, give charity on their behalf, and carry out their bequests. This is what is prescribed, which benefits them and from which they benefit, as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Adam, his deeds are cut off except for three things" . What benefits the deceased are righteous deeds, such as supplication, charity, and performing Hajj and 'Umrah on their behalf. As for holding mourning gatherings, setting up houses of condolence, and preparing food by people or by the family of the deceased, and expanding in that, all of this is among the shackles and burdens that are not in the interest of the living, nor in the interest of the deceased. Yes.