Answer
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
According to many scholars, the following deeds can also be done on behalf of our parents: offering charities, performing pilgrimage, fasting, and reading the Qur’an and making supplications.
In his response to your question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
Your desire to benefit your mother is indeed most desirable; you are to be commended for your intention. Our parents are to be cherished in life and death.
Just as we owe duties of kindness towards them during their life, we do owe them a debt of gratitude after death.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was once asked, “Do I owe anything towards my parents after their death?” He replied, “You owe it to them to pray for them and ask forgiveness of Allah; to fulfill their promises after them; foster their ties of kinship and to honor their friends.” (Abu Dawud)
According to many scholars, the following deeds can also be done on behalf of our parents: offering charities, performing pilgrimages, fasting, and reading the Qur’an and making supplications.
So go ahead and do the good works you can afford to do for the benefit of the soul of your mother.
May Allah make us all loyal to our parents by cherishing their memory and doing what we can to benefit their souls. Ameen.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.