Making food during the mourning period
Question

                What is the ruling on making food during the period of mourning? What is the ruling on guests of the household eating the food that has been brought to them?
Praise be to Allah.It is better for neighbours and relatives to make food 
          in their own houses then bring it to the household (of the deceased), 
          because it was narrated that when the Prophet  
          (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) heard that his cousin Ja’far 
          ibn Abi Taalib (may Allaah be pleased with him) had died in the Battle 
          of Mu’tah, he told his family to make food for the family of Ja’far, 
          and said, “Because there has come to them that which will preoccupy 
          them.” 
 But it is not permitted for the family to make food 
          for people because for the sake of the deceased. This is one of the 
          actions of the Jaahiliyyah, whether it is done on the day of the death, 
          or on the fourth or tenth day after the death, or at the new year. All 
          of that is not permitted, because it was narrated that Jareer ibn ‘Abd-Allaah 
          al-Bajali (may Allaah be pleased with him) – one of the companions of 
          the Prophet  (peace and blessings 
          of Allaah be upon him) – said, “We used to count gathering with the 
          family of the deceased and making food for them after the burial to 
          be a kind of wailing (niyaahah).”  
But if guests come to the family of the deceased during 
          the mourning period, there is nothing wrong with them making food for 
          them for the sake of hospitality, and there is nothing wrong with the 
          household inviting whoever they want of their neighbours and relatives 
          to eat with them from the food that has been given to them. And Allaah 
          is the Source of strength.