ایصالِ ثواب کی فضیلت

It is narrated from Abdullah ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the mother of Sa’d ibn Ubadah passed away at a time when Sa’d himself was not present (he had gone with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) on a military expedition). When he returned, he submitted to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): “O Messenger of Allah! My mother passed away in my absence; so if I give charity on her behalf, will it benefit her (and will its reward reach her)?” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Yes, it will reach her.” He said: “Then I make you a witness that I have given my garden in charity for my deceased mother.” (Bukhari)

One way of serving the deceased and treating them well after their death is to pray to Allah for forgiveness and mercy for them and to beg for His clemency and grace; the special purpose and aim of the funeral prayer is also this, and the real objective of visiting graves is also this. Besides these ways of praying for good, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) also showed another form of serving and benefiting the deceased: that charity or some similar good deed be performed on their behalf and its reward be gifted to them — this is what conveying reward (isal-e-sawab) is.
In another narration it comes thus: the grandfather of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with him), Aas ibn Wa’il (who was not granted Islam), had willed (to his sons) that a hundred slaves be freed on his behalf. In accordance with this will, (his son) Hisham ibn al-As freed fifty slaves that were his share; (the other son) Amr ibn al-As also intended to free the remaining fifty slaves of his share, but he decided that he would do so only after asking the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So he came to his presence and submitted: “My father willed the freeing of a hundred slaves, and my brother Hisham has freed fifty on his behalf, and fifty remain; so should I free those fifty slaves on my father’s behalf?” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “If your father had departed this world with Islam and faith, then had you freed slaves on his behalf, or given charity, or performed Hajj, the reward of those deeds would have reached him.” (on the authority of Abu Dawud)
This hadith too is quite clear about the matter of conveying reward; in it, besides conveying reward through charity, there is also mention of Hajj, and in the Musnad Ahmad narration of the same hadith, fasting is mentioned instead of Hajj. But from this blessed hadith it became known, as a principle and rule, that the reward of all these good deeds can be conveyed to the deceased, but faith and Islam are a condition.
Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal says: when you go to the graveyard, recite there Surah al-Fatihah, the Mu’awwidhatayn and Qul Huwallahu Ahad, and convey its reward to the people of the graveyard, and it reaches them. Going to the graves for the sake of conveying reward — for the people of the grave (that is, the deceased) the intention is that they benefit from the conveyed reward and the prayer for forgiveness and so on; and for the one who goes to the grave it is better still that he reach there and take a lesson (from it).
It is narrated from Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that whoever goes to the graveyard and there recites Qul Huwallahu Ahad eleven (11) times and bestows its reward upon the people of the graveyard, he receives reward equal to the number of the dead buried in that graveyard. It is narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: whoever goes to the graveyard and recites Surah al-Fatihah, Qul Huwallahu Ahad and Surah Alhakumut-Takathur, and then submits to Allah, “I convey the reward of whatever I have now recited of Your pure Word to the believing men and women buried in this graveyard,” then the dead buried in the graveyard become intercessors for him with Allah. Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: whoever goes to the graveyard and recites Surah Ya-Sin there (for the sake of conveying reward), Allah lightens the punishment of the people of the graveyard, and that person is granted good deeds equal to the number of the dead buried in the graveyard.
From these hadiths it can well be gauged that while the benefit of conveying reward reaches the deceased, the one who performs this act of conveying reward also obtains boundless reward and recompense. May Allah grant us all the ability to derive ever greater benefit from this! Amin!