Ruling on Instructing Someone visiting Madinah to Read Al-Fatiha for Muhammad ﷺ

This is also one of the bid’ah (innovations) that the ignorant people started in the religion of Allah. The salaf (the pious predecessors) never did this. When one of them traveled to Medina, his companion would not tell him, "Read for us Al- Fatiha for the Prophet's ﷺ soul” or “Greet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for us” or other similar statements. Rather, this is only from the bid’ah (innovations) started by some ignorant people. Also, gifting the reward of acts of worship to the Prophet ﷺ is from bid’ah as well, even if it was in a different form than reading al-Fatiha. Even if a person prays two rak'ahs or gives two dirhams in charity and he wanted the reward of that to be for the Prophet ﷺ, then it is from the bid’ah as well because the pious salaf (predecessors) did not do so. And it is short-sighted because the one who gifted the reward of the good deeds to the Prophet ﷺ has, in reality, only deprived his own self from the reward of this action. Otherwise, the Prophet ﷺ already has the reward of what we do, whether it is gifted to him or not, because he ﷺ is the one who directed his nation to the good and he is the one who has the reward of the doers. Because whoever directs to goodness will have the same reward as the person who does it. Therefore, the Prophet ﷺ does not need to be gifted any of our deeds. Every good deed that we get closer to Allah with, then the Prophet ﷺ has a reward similar to ours. Therefore, there is no need to gift the rewards. The meaning of gifting reward in this case is just that the doer of the action deprived himself of the reward of the action. Moderator: You hinted at the second issue (too), which is sending Salam (peace) upon the Prophet ﷺ. We often hear if someone wants to travel to Medina, the people who stay back all say to him “Send Salam for us on the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” And this has become widespread very recently. Sheikh: This is also a mistake, ignorance, and bid'ah. Because sending Salam where appointing someone else is not valid. Bodily actions are not valid when we appoint others. Thus, if a person says "Pray two raka'ahs for me", it does not benefit. The same applies if he says "Send Salam on my behalf to the Prophet ﷺ". And what is strange is this man gives up appointing the angels who convey the Salam of the people to the Prophet ﷺ, and they are more preserving and precise than mankind. Then this man appoints some human who may die before he arrives, may forget, or may be inflicted with illnesses and obstacles that prevent him from carrying out this instruction. In any case, this is one of the innovations that must be warned from.