Praise be to Allah.
The Importance of Proper Ruqyah Practices
It is not correct to make Ruqyah something widespread that is done by everyone. How many there will be among these volunteers who do not recite Qur’an well or do not understand its meanings! Based on that, this is the first problem with what these people are doing of asking volunteers to perform Ruqyah for the sick. Most of them may not be qualified for that, and they (the organizers) will not have fulfilled the conditions that must be met by the Raqi (the one who performs Ruqyah).
Ruling on Collective Ruqyah for the Sick
There is no basis in Islam for reciting Ruqyah in a group, as far as we know, whether that is done by reciting it in unison or repeating it after one of them. This is not the way to perform Ruqyah.
What is normally done with regard to Ruqyah is that it is done by one person who recites over the sick person the Ruqyah that is Islamically prescribed; there is no reason why someone else should not help him if he becomes tired or he stops, so that the other person may perform Ruqyah for the sick person after him. But with regard to more than one person reciting in unison or repeating after a reciter or Raqi , this is something for which there is no basis in Islam, as stated above, and it does not come under the heading of treating the sick with Ruqyah.
The Permissibility of Ruqyah Over Water
With regard to recitation of the Islamically prescribed Ruqyah by a particular reciter or Raqi over water , which is then used to wash the sick person or given to him to drink, that is permissible.
Bid`ah in Acts of Worship: Reciting Al-Fatihah on Occasions
Recitation of Quran on the occasion mentioned (in the question) and similar occasions is something for which there is no basis in the Sunnah, whether that is recitation of a random passage from the Quran or recitation of Al-Fatihah in particular on some occasion .
The basic principle with regard to acts of worship is that they are based on Tawqif [i.e., they can only be known through divine Revelation and sound texts of Hadith, with no room for Ijtihad].
There were (among the early generation) occasions such as divorce, marriage and so on, during which not a single letter of the Quran, Al-Fatihah or anything else, was recited by the people present. All goodness is in following the earlier generations and all evil is in following innovations introduced by those who came after them.
Shaykh Ibn `Uthaymin (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
Al-Fatihah and other specific Surahs are only to be recited in the cases prescribed by Islam. If they are recited in other cases as an act of worship, then this is regarded as an innovation. We have seen many people reciting Al-Fatihah on all occasions; we have even heard people saying, “Recite Al-Fatihah for the deceased” or “for such and such” and so on. All of this comes under the heading of reprehensible innovations.
Al-Fatihah and other Surahs are not to be recited in all situations, in all places and at all times, and we should object to the one who does that. (End quote from Fatawa Nur `Ala Ad-Darb, tape no. 371)
The Prohibition of Mixing Genders in Islamic Gatherings
Mixing of men and women is prohibited and reprehensible ; the prohibition is more emphatic and the abhorrent nature of the act is greater if that mixing takes place in one of the houses of Allah and is done openly and attributed to Islam!
What appears to us to be the case from the questions asked by the brother is that the people who do these actions and supervise them are not people of knowledge; he should explain to them the mistakes that they are making and show them this answer of ours, in the hope that Allah will guide them to give up what they are doing wrong; you should also be gentle in telling them not to do it. May Allah guide and help you.
And Allah knows best.
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