In Sharḥ al-Zād and other Hanbali works it is stated: “Whatever devotional act a Muslim performs—be it supplication, seeking forgiveness, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, Quran recitation, or the like—and then dedicates its reward to a deceased or living Muslim, that person benefits from it.”

Imam Aḥmad said, “Every kind of good reaches the dead, for the revealed texts establish this.”

Ibn al-Qayyim remarked, “Whoever fasts, prays, or gives charity and assigns its reward to someone else, whether dead or alive, the reward reaches that person according to Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah. The doer himself is also rewarded because of his intention, although it is preferable for him to keep the reward for his own deed and then supplicate for others as taught in the Quran and Sunnah.”

Ibn al-Qayyim discussed the issue exhaustively in his book al-Rūḥ, affirming that the reward of every act of devotion and righteousness reaches the deceased. He furnished proofs, refuted the objections of dissenters, and we shall quote a brief extract of his conclusions below for further benefit.

Scholars have differed over purely bodily acts of worship—such as fasting, prayer, Quran recitation, and remembrance (dhikr):
• The position of Imam Aḥmad and the majority of the early generations is that their reward does reach the deceased.
• The view of Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī is that it does not.

The evidence that a person benefits from deeds in which he took no direct part includes:

1. The hadith, “When the son of Adam dies, his work ceases except for three…” (Muslim 1631).
   And the hadith, “Whoever initiates a good practice will have its reward and the reward of all who act upon it; and whoever initiates an evil practice will bear its sin and the sins of all who act upon it after him…” (Muslim 1017).
2. His benefiting from acts he did not perform is affirmed by the Quran, the Sunnah, scholarly consensus, and the general principles of the Shariah.