How long may a family mourn a death, and what is forbidden during it?

Grief, tears and sorrow of the heart are permitted — the Prophet ﷺ wept over his son Ibrāhīm and said "the eye sheds tears and the heart grieves, but we say only what pleases our Lord" — while wailing, striking the cheeks, tearing garments and calling out with the calls of Jāhiliyyah are forbidden; he ﷺ declared that whoever does so is not of us. A woman may observe iḥdād (formal mourning) for a relative for no more than three days, except for her husband, for whom it is four months and ten days, matching the ʿiddah Allah prescribed. Beyond that, there is no legislated "third day," "fortieth day," or annual commemoration gathering in the Sunnah; the Sunnah is rather that food be prepared for the bereaved family, and that they be consoled and supplicated for.

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