In the [sunan] of al-Nasāʾī and others from the ḥadīth of Maʿqal ibn Yasār al-Muzanī who narrated that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: ‘Read sūrah Yāsīn for your dead.’¹ There is a possibility that the proper application [of this reading] should be for a person who is dying before they pass away.

Similar to it is [the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم)’s] saying: ‘Repeat for your dead the utterance of [the shahādah]: there is nothing worshipped in truth except for Allāh.’ There is another possibility that the ḥadīth refers to reading [the Qurʾān] next to the graves of your dead. Although the first possibility is more apparent for several reasons.

Firstly, this ḥadith uses the same adage as the ḥadīth: ‘Repeat for your dead the utterance of [the shahādah]: there is nothing worshipped in truth except for Allāh.’

Secondly, the true benefit of this sūrah for the one on the verge of death comes from its elaboration on the subjects of Allāh’s Oneness [tawḥīd], resurrection, glad tidings of jannah for the people of tawḥīd, and the elation of the ones who die while [believing in it] by their saying: ‘

‘I wish my people could know. Of how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honoured.’
[Yasīn, 36:26-27]

Thus does [this sūrah] hold glad tidings for the soul, resulting in its yearning for the imminent meeting with Allāh, and consequently, Allāh responds to this with love to meet [this soul]. For truly, this sūrah is the heart of the Qurʾān.³ The effect [of reading it] is extraordinarily specific for the one approaching death. Abū al-Farj ibn al-Jawzī said: We were with our shaykh Abū al-Waqt ʿAbd al-Awwal when he was dying, and our last memory of him before he passed away was that he looked to the sky and laughed saying:

‘I wish my people could know. Of how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honoured.’
[Yāsīn, 36:26-27]

and then he died.

Thirdly, this is a widely known practice of the people, both modern and contemporary, that they recite this sūrah for the one verging on death.

Fourthly, if the ṣaḥābah had understood from his saying: ‘Read sūrah Yāsīn for your dead’ that this should be recited next to the graves, in fact, they would never have missed the opportunity to do so. Moreover, it would have become a normal, popular action among them [which it was not].

Fifthly, true benefit [from its recitation] is borne out of listening to its words, while allowing one’s heart and mind to be present with the goal of having this represent the very last moments one spends in this dunyā. As for reading it at the grave, there is no reward for the companion of that grave from its recitation. This is because the reward is only promised to the one who either recites it or listens to its recitation. These are both types of action, and indeed action has ceased for a person who has already died.’

Endnotes:

[1] Nasāʾī: 1074, Abū Dāwūd: 3121, and ‘Muṣannaf’ Ibn Abī Shaybah 3:237. The ḥadīth is weak. See Fatāwā of the High Council of Scholars no. 3865. Al-Dāraquṭnī said: This ḥadīth has a weak chain of narrators, its text is unknown, and there is no sound ḥadīth in this vein.’
[2] Al-Rūḥ 28-29
[3] Referring to the ḥadīth: ‘Truly, everything has a heart and the heart of the Qurʾān is Yāsīn.’ The ḥadith is very weak. Narrated by al-Tirmidhī, Shaykh al-Albānī said [concerning it]: ‘Mawḍūʿ [fabricated]. Likewise, Ibn Abī Hātim al-Rāzī narrates from his father Abū Ḥātim, as in the book ʿIlal al-Ḥadīth,’ where he said: This ḥadīth is completely false; unsubstantiated.’ And Allāh knows best.

Translated by: Riyād al-Kanadī