✅Answer: Hired prayers and fasting is a term that has been raised during the Major Occultation. According to it, when a deceased person passes away with missed prayers and fasts, a sum of money from their estate is given to a person to perform these prayers and fasts as a hired worker (ajir).

This practice has no scientific or practical precedent during the approximately 250 years of the presence of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them), and not a single case has been reported from the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) or their followers.

✅The first person to raise this issue and state that one can hire someone to perform the prayers and fasts for the deceased so that the guardian can be at ease was Abu Ja'far al-Shuhani! Of course, he and others like him discussed this issue in passing, but al-Shahid al-Awwal (the First Martyr) discussed it in detail.

✅Those who have defended this ruling have no basis in narrations and approach the issue through ijtihad (independent reasoning). By providing a specific and non-narrational definition of 'ijarah' (hiring) and 'musta'jir' (hired person), they try to include this matter within the non-narrational definition of hiring and clothe this ruling in a religious guise through the terms 'ajir' and 'musta'jir'.

✅This issue, like other religious matters, requires a tradition and a religious command to be received from the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) because:

1 عَنْ جَعْفَرٍ عَنْ آبَائِهِ عَنْ أَمِيرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ قَالَ: قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ لَا قَوْلَ إِلَّا بِعَمَلٍ وَ لَا قَوْلَ وَ لا عَمَلَ إِلَّا بِنِيَّةٍ وَ لَا قَوْلَ وَ لا عَمَلَ وَ لا نِيَّةَ إِلَّا بِإِصَابَةِ السُّنَّة

📚 Al-Kafi, vol. 1, p. 70

Translation: The Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) said: There is no word except with action, and there is no word and action except with intention, and there is no word, action, and intention except with receiving from the tradition.

✅Therefore, as long as a command for the permissibility of this act has not reached us from the Lawgiver, engaging in this act has no religious legitimacy.

✅Furthermore, in Shi'i narrations, there is a command and tradition for the makeup of prayers and fasts for the deceased, according to which one acts, not according to something that has no root in the tradition of the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them). Among them:

2 الْبَخْتَرِيِّ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ فِي الرَّجُلِ يَمُوتُ وَ عَلَيْهِ صَلَاةٌ أَوْ صِيَامٌ قَالَ يَقْضِي عَنْهُ أَوْلَى النَّاسِ بِمِيرَاثِهِ قُلْتُ فَإِنْ كَانَ أَوْلَى النَّاسِ بِهِ امْرَأَةً فَقَالَ لَا إِلَّا الرِّجَالُ

📚 Al-Kafi, vol. 4, p. 123

Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) said regarding a person who dies with prayers or fasts on their neck: The person most deserving of his inheritance should make them up on his behalf. I said: 'What if the person most deserving of his inheritance is a woman?' He said: 'No, only men.'

3 رُوِيَ عَنِ الصَّادِقِ أَنَّهُ قَالَ: إِذَا مَاتَ الرَّجُلُ وَ عَلَيْهِ صَوْمُ شَهْرِ رَمَضَانَ- فَلْيَقْضِ عَنْهُ مَنْ شَاءَ مِنْ أَهْلِهِ

📚 Al-Faqih, vol. 2, p. 153

Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) said: When a person dies and has fasts of the month of Ramadan on their neck, whoever from his family wishes may make them up on his behalf.

✅Numerous hadiths have been received regarding the manner and rulings of making up the prayers and fasts for the deceased, but none of them mention hiring someone to do this. In other words, hiring someone to perform the prayers and fasts for the deceased has no tradition, and the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) have introduced other ways to do this, and they are to be acted upon.

4 قال امیرالمؤمنین في حديث... إِنَّ الْمُؤْمِنَ لَمْ يَأْخُذْ دِينَهُ عَنْ رَأْيِهِ وَ لَكِنْ أَتَاهُ مِنْ رَبِّهِ فَأَخَذَ بِهِ الْحَدِيثَ

📚 Al-Kafi, vol. 2, p. 46

Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) said: Indeed, a believer does not take his religion from his own opinion, but it reaches him from his Lord, and he acts upon it.

✅Thus, believers wait until a tradition and a method regarding the permissibility of this act reach them from the Lord through the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them); otherwise, they act upon the traditions that have reached them from the Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) regarding the makeup of prayers and fasts for the deceased, and they have no need for personal opinion.

✅ Pay attention to the following unique case and its differences from making up prayers and fasts for the deceased:

5 عَنْ إِسْحَاقَ بْنِ عَمَّارٍ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ فِي رَجُلٍ يَجْعَلُ عَلَيْهِ صِيَاماً فِي نَذْرٍ فَلَا يَقْوَى قَالَ يُعْطِي مَنْ يَصُومُ عَنْهُ فِي كُلِّ يَوْمٍ مُدَّيْن

📚 Al-Kafi, vol. 7, p. 457

Imam al-Sadiq (peace be upon him) said regarding a person who makes a vow to fast but cannot afford it: For each day, he should give two 'mudd' of food to someone to fast on his behalf!

اللَّهُمَّ فَصَلِّ عَلَی مُحَمَّدٍ وَ آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ وَ عَجِّلْ لِوَلِیِّکَ الْفَرَجَ وَ الْعَافِیَةَ وَ النَّصْرَ

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