What is your opinion regarding condolences, given that people have now expanded the practice to include sitting gatherings and slaughtering animals?

The questioner : Regarding the matter of condolences, Shaykh, people have expanded the practice. You find that when someone dies among the people, they prepare food for them, but they bring in slaughtered animals, two or three. And when they are spoken to about it, they say: "People come to offer condolences, and we feed them." Likewise, when they are spoken to about sitting for condolences, they say: "Where else would people find us? We must sit so they can offer us condolences, and so on." This is a matter, meaning?

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:
We have a small message regarding the rulings of condolences and what is related to them. If you take something from it, it will be beneficial. Condolences are not a congratulation, as one congratulates someone on a good event.
The purpose of condolences is that when we see a person who is afflicted and affected, we speak to him with words that ease the calamity for him. This is the meaning. So we say to him, for example, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to one of his daughters: . There is no need to gather in the house, for gathering in the house is contrary to the practice of the righteous Salaf. They even said, meaning the righteous Salaf: . And wailing is among the major sins. . However, if we hear that a person among the people is affected by the death of a relative or a friend or the like, we strive to reach him, whether he is a man in the market or in the mosque or the like, and we console him. We say: "Be patient and seek reward from Allah." But merely because a relative dies, we gather and people gather, and perhaps we light the lights, arrange the chairs, and bring the reciters and the like, this is not permissible. People, until recently, did not do this at all. When a person died, once they finished burying him and saw that he was affected, they offered him condolences and returned to their families. Then, whoever found him in the market or in the mosque offered him condolences.
As for the gathering, there is no doubt that it is a religious innovation and that it is forbidden, especially if it is accompanied by wailing, where women gather and say: "By Allah, this is the father of the family, this is the master of the house, who is for the family, who is for the house, and the like." Then it becomes forbidden wailing. And it is incumbent upon students of knowledge to make the people see the truth before the tear becomes too large for the mender. Yes.