to Noah:

“Are we to believe in you when the lowliest people follow you?”

“He said, ‘What knowledge have I of what they used to do? Their reckoning rests with my Lord alone, if you could but perceive.’”

We know of no Muslim who, when approached by a non-Muslim under Muslim protection wishing to embrace Islam, told him, “Your conversion is not valid until you are free of all sin.” The same applies to all other righteous deeds, such as prayer and zakah.

The fourth means of averting punishment is the believers’ supplication for a fellow believer, such as their funeral prayer for him. ‘Ā’ishah and Anas ibn Mālik reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“No deceased person has a body of one hundred Muslims pray over him, all interceding for him, without their intercession being accepted.”

Ibn ‘Abbās said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, say:

“No Muslim man dies and has forty men who associate nothing with Allah stand to offer his funeral prayer without Allah accepting their intercession for him.”

Both reports were narrated by Muslim. This is supplication for him after death. The forgiveness mentioned cannot therefore be restricted to the God-fearing believer who avoided major sins and whose minor sins were expiated, for both sides in this dispute agree that such a person is forgiven. Thus, it is clear that this supplication is among the means by which the deceased receives forgiveness.

The fifth means is righteous deeds performed on behalf of the deceased, such as charity and the like. He benefits from these according to explicit, authentic texts of the Sunnah and the agreement of the imams. The same applies to freeing slaves and performing Hajj.

Indeed, it is established in the two Sahīh collections that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever dies owing a fast, his next of kin should fast on his behalf.”

The same is also established in al-Sahīh concerning vowed fasts through