Q 2: What is the ruling on extravagance in funerals? The bereaved family has dinners for those who come to offer condolences. There are also some customs that have spread such as holding a ceremony for people to come and offer condolences again on the third, eighth, and fortieth day after death.
A2: This is baseless; it is a Bid`ah (innovation in Islam), Munkar (that which is unacceptable or disapproved of by Islamic law and Muslims of sound intellect), and one of the deeds of Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic time of ignorance). It is impermissible to make dinners for the people who come to offer condolences, either on the first, third, fourth, fortieth or any other day after death.
Jarir ibn `Abdullah Al-Bajaly (may Allah be pleased with him), a noble Companion of the Prophet, said, "We considered gathering in the house of the bereaved family and cooking food after burial an act of wailing."Related by Imam Ahmad with a good Isnad (chain of narration).