What is the stronger position on the issue of dedicating reward to the deceased?

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the stronger position on the issue of dedicating reward to the deceased? Some say it is permissible to dedicate the reward of any type of worship, while others limit it to the types of worship for which there is an explicit text. What is the stronger position in this matter?

Answer:
The correct view is not merely the stronger one; the correct view is that the default is that a Muslim’s deed is for himself. This is except for what the Lawgiver has excluded, such as supplicating for him, or the ongoing charity he performed, or the righteous slave who supplicates for him after his death. His supplication reaches him, and his charity is credited to him. This is like when the woman asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to dedicate charity to her mother, and similarly when Sa'd ibn Ubadah asked to dedicate charity to his mother, who was deceased. What is excluded from the statement of Allah the Exalted is only what the evidence has brought, and the rest does not reach the deceased in reward, because it is exclusively for the one who performed it.