Funerals and the wailing and religious innovations that accompany them

Question:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. Shaykh Salih asks you about reciting Surat al-Fatihah at funerals; what is your opinion of the one who does that?

Answer:
Holding mourning gatherings is forbidden and a religious innovation (bid'ah); it falls under wailing, falls under consuming wealth unjustly, and it has great dangers. Therefore, it is not permissible to hold mourning gatherings for the deceased. What is prescribed is offering condolences without holding such gatherings. Offering condolences means that you call upon the bereaved and for the deceased, saying, "May Allah reward you with good and forgive your deceased," without holding gatherings. If you meet the bereaved, or go to his home or any place where he is, and you offer him condolences and comfort him, that is a prescribed matter. As for holding gatherings, setting up tents, spending days eating and drinking, hiring reciters, and so on, all of this is among the innovations, the evil deeds, and the burdens that . Reciting the Qur'an in them, specifically reciting Surat al-Fatihah, is an innovation, because this is not a place for reciting the Qur'an; rather, the Qur'an is too great and too honorable for these innovative mourning gatherings.