There is a very beneficial idea. Just as we all love to receive gifts and we all love when people remember us in our life time, similarly we love to be remembered in our death when we shall be counted as dead people and our graves will lie amongst other graves.

We should therefore not forget others who have departed from us especially our parents and relatives by praying for them, by giving charity on their behalf and by visiting their graves. Some people think wrongly that our rights towards our parents are limited only in their life and end at their death.

Muhammad ibn Muslim narrates a tradition from Aba Jaffer (a.s): "A person may be good to his parents during their life and forget them after their death, thus Allah considers him to have angered his parents. If on the other hand he was irresponsible in his duties towards them during their life and started to do good deeds on their behalf after their death Allah considers him to be an obedient servant". (AL BIHAR VOL 4 PAGE 59)

The Holy Prophet says that the leader of the good doers on the day of Judgment is the one who did good to his parents after their death. (AL BIHAR VOL 74)

A famous scholar relates that he was told by Sheikh Ali Tehrani that the Sheikh's father related that he was in Kerbala and his mother was in Tehran. Then one night he dreamt that his mother had come to him and said that she had died and that she had been brought to Kerbala.

The Sheikh's father woke up and as he wondered about his dream, he received a letter saying that his mother had indeed died and they had sent her body to Kerbala to be blessed and buried at the Haram (shrine) of Imam Hussein (a.s.).

The sheikh's father brought the body to the Haram of Hazrat Abbas (a.s.) and prayed to this saint. "Ya Abbas! my mother was not a regular in saying her prayers or fasting. I beg you to intercede on her behalf and I promise to pay somebody who will pray and fast for fifty years on her behalf", he begged.

After many months, the Sheikh's father heard that there was noise and commotion in his dream at the door of his house. He came out to find out about the origin of that noise when at the door he saw that his mother had been tied to a tree and was being whipped. The sheikh's father asked the reason for this and he was told that they had been ordered by Hazrat Abbas (a.s.) to whip her until the Sheikh's father fulfilled his promise of paying the debt of her prayers and fasting.

Thus he went into his house and brought back the money and then took his mother in to the house to tend to her wounds. When he got up from his dream he realized the mistake he had committed and in reality found people to pray Salaat Istijaara and fast for her. (DAR US SALAAM VOL 2 PAGE 242)