Asalaamalikum,
A co-worker of mines (Christian) asked me whether she should give her passed away brother in laws wife (who are both Muslim) flowers?
Is it respect and sincerity on their part? What can she do for the passed away brother in law?
Assalam alaikum
If this does not answer your question you can visit the website (islam-qa.com) and ask directly.
1973
Ruling on giving flowers to the sick
Question:
We wish to ask you about a phenomenon that has started to increase in the hospitals, which is alien to the Muslims societies and has come to us from the kaafir western societies. This is the giving of flowers to the sick, which are bought for a high price. What is your opinion of this custom?
Answer:
Praise be to Allaah.
Undoubtedly there is no benefit in these flowers and no purpose in them. They do not heal the sick person or reduce his pain or bring him good health or ward off diseases. They are merely a manufactured image of flowering plants made by hand or by machine, and sold at a high price from which the manufacturers make a profit and the purchasers lose out. This is no more than blind imitation of the west, without the slightest pause for thought. These flowers are bought for a high price, and they stay with the sick person for an hour or two, or a day or two, then they are thrown out with the trash. It would be better to keep the money and use it for something that will serve a purpose in some worldly or religious sense. Anyone who sees people buying or selling these flowers should rebuke him for doing so, in the hope that he might repent and forego this transaction which leads to nothing but loss.
Al-Lu’lu’ al-Makeen min Fataawaa al-Shaykh ibn Jibreen, p. 58
Question:
Does putting a bunch of flowers on the grave of the “unknown soldier” come under the same ruling as the actions of those who venerate their “saints (awliya’) and righteous people until they are worshipped?
Answer:
Praise be to Allaah.
This action is an innovation (bid’ah) and exaggeration about the dead. It is similar to the actions of those who venerated the righteous and made symbols (of the dead). There is the fear that this may, with the passage of time, lead to building domes over their graves, seeking blessing from them and taking them as gods alongside Allaah. So we must not do that, in order to avoid the means that lead to shirk.
Al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, from Kitaab Fataawa Islamiyyah, 1/20.
Salam,
Your brother in Islam.